The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.
Leaving Glen Mary Bridge I cross Tom Ghyll and follow the woodland path which avoids the road and leads in only a short distance to Yew Tree Tarn. With no wind and a beautiful bright blue sky above, the surrounding beech trees, green pines and yes, some yews along with the tapered brown knobbly knuckles of fellside are reflecting nicely off the tarn and provide a very satisfying sight. I stand for a while on the small dam wall to admire the view and count my blessings for such a lovely day.
The path continues around the tarn and into those pines on the far side which are ramrod straight, rising upwards to the heavens like sentinels. Meandering among them are more black and white cows, the same I saw on my walk up Black Fell. It turns out these are Belted Galloway, put here by the National Trust to keep the vegetation down.
Passing through the gate in the intake wall I leave the cows and the pines behind and climb upwards through Harry Guards Wood, although ‘wood’ might be stretching it a bit.
The path narrows into Uskdale Gap and eventually levels out where a cairn is met at the top of the small hause.
The hills to the north are now visible and there is fine view of the Langdale Pikes, their distinctive outline making them conspicuous on the skyline.
I turn sharp left and climb once more, up, over and around the hillocky slopes until after a little scramble up a rock gully I reach the summit of Holme Fell.
The true summit is a slab of angled rock which gives a superb view along the whole length of Coniston Water which is flat calm and pale blue among a sea of rolling greenery and brown fell. The great whale back of Wetherlam, my next walk dominates the view west and the Langdales and the Helvellyn ridge are to the north.
About twenty metres from the summit, a cairn has been built on a grass mound and I sit and have something to eat on the soft grass taking in the views and allowing myself, after two months away to re-calibrate into a hillwalking mindset, slow down, silence the mind chatter, be present and enjoy the moments.
Leaving the summit I drop down towards Holme Ground where I pick up a track which leads to the Hodge Close lane.
The lane leads to the banks of Yewdale Beck and I sit for a while in the shadow of the trees listening to the burbling stream and watching the sunlight glisten in the mini waterfalls.
I pass by the impressive Raven Crag and at Shepherds Bridge I divert from the footpath to walk down to the main road. In his chapter on Holme Fell, Wainwright mentions an individual tree that he particularly admired and I’m keen to see if it’s still there. At the junction I’m pleased to see that Wainwright’s solitary Scots pine is still standing and looking in good shape.
Karen Joy Fowler wrote “Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come”. And it’s true that trees have the ability to elicit emotions from us that seem disproportionate. We only have to look at the outpouring of anger when the Sycamore Gap tree was felled or more recently when a five hundred year old oak was chopped down by apparent mistake in a north London park.
I have trees that I nod to on my local walks, trees that I have cycled or walked past for most of my life and will certainly outlive me. Wainwright finished Book Four, the book containing Holme Fell during Christmas 1959 so we know his tree was there then. He died thirty two years later in 1991 and I am standing here thirty four years later still in 2025. Wainwright’s pine long outlived the man himself and in all probability it will outlive us all.
Back at Shepherds Bridge I pick up the footpath which leads me to Yew Tree Farm and then along the road back to the car park.
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Stunning weather, stunning walk with enough variation not to be bored. I enjoy seeing the moss covered stone walls, that is something we don’t have here. I have just returned feeling grateful from my usual 10km estuary walk as the old trees have faired well after our latest ex-cyclone storm.
Thank you Suzanne 😀, I think some of those walls were probably around when James Cook was mapping New Zealand! (Not that New Zealand’s ancient history started with the arrival of the white man of course.) Thankfully cyclones are not something we get in the U.K. although the weather is getting more unpredictable
A gorgeous day for a walk and I love the light filtering through the trees. Thanks for the stroll. Mel
Thank you Mel 😀
Loved the meditation on Wainwrights lone Scots Pine – I too have a tree I nod to in our local park.
Thank you Tricia, I think there are many who have an attachment to particular trees 😀
I reckon that sometimes trees are planted deliberately, either as a signpost or way-marker, or quite often as a “signature” or permanent marker of the person who has built or landscaped nearby. There is one such outlier on an estate near us. It’s a Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and at 150 feet tall and 300 years old, it towers over the estate where it was planted – and it is still a youngster with another 3,000 years left in it. The landscape gardener new full well it would outlive many generations and likely the manor house itself. It was his signature and a gift to future generations; probably like Wainwright’s pine.
Thanks Dave, giant redwoods certainly are spectacular. I was fortunate enough to see the coastal redwoods in California but Bodnant Gardens, a bit closer to home in North Wales has some fine ones. 😀
What a gorgeous walk with the added bonus of seeing Wainwright’s Pine, I didn’t know of it’s existence, thanks for a great post. 🙂
Thank you Shazza 😀
I was captivated by Scots pine on the last day of my hiking near Fort William. I don’t know why I’ve not noticed them before. It’s possible I’d not come across one on my coastal walking to date. 🤷🏻♂️
Was that the WHW Tony? I seem to remember that final section goes through a pine forest before dropping into Fort William. Maybe they prefer to grow inland?
Those blues look amazing! It looks like a great walk. I hope the weather is like that this time next week. Some friends and I are doing the Inn Way to the Lakes, well, most of it. And, we’ll be starting (and finishing) in Coniston, taking the path a little east of yours to Little Langdale. (I’ve shortened our Day 1 down from about 16 to 10 miles,as we’re not getting any younger!) Posts to come in a few weeks. 👍👍😊
I’ll look forward to reading those Mike. I was fortunate to get up there during that good spell we had a few weeks ago, not sure the forecast is going to be as good for next week but you never know. Coniston is a lovely little place 😀
What a pretty walk, and you can’t beat that bluebird sky. We have a few trees that mark our progress on certain trails too, they will outlive us I’m sure. Maggie
Thanks Maggie, yes we had a lovely spell of good weather earlier in the month. My jetpack app is playing up at the moment so I’m not getting notifications of comments hence a delayed reply! 😀
I love the quote: “Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come” – so true! We have recently visited Muir Woods in San Francisco, and learned that the park is home to some 1,200 years-old redwoods. How amazing is that?!
Thanks Christie, yes it’s a good quote isn’t it. I was fortunate to visit the coastal redwoods some years ago and was an incredible experience 😀
Ah this looks great. I hope you enjoyed your moment atop with the quiet.
Thanks Ruth, yes good to be back in the mountains 😀