It’s my first trip to Lakeland this year. The busyness of life has kept me away but here I am on a Friday evening in early March stopping in what is described as an ‘Aire’ on the outskirts of Ambleside. It’s next to the football club and seems to be the only place in town that can accommodate campervans. I’m here with the intention of doing the Fairfield Horseshoe, a classic Lakeland ridge walk that starts and finishes in Ambleside. One of the best views of it by the way is from the middle of Lake Windermere.
The forecast is good but when I look out of the van window in the morning it’s dull and overcast. The Fairfield Horseshoe takes in a total of eight Wainwright’s which is a lot for one walk. One of the golden rules I set myself on my journey through the Wainwright’s is that I will have a mindful walking approach. I’m not going to rush these hills and will intentionally spend time on each top, taking it all in and enjoying it for its own sake rather than it merely being a tick in a box.
Eight Wainwright’s in eight hours of daylight might be pushing that walking ethos a bit but as I head up Nook Lane just after 8am I will see how the day develops and I do have a Plan B. A tarmac road heads steadily uphill on a good gradient, past houses and Cumbria University buildings all the way to Nook End Farm which has to be one of the neatest farms I have ever seen, I wonder if it is still a working farm.
Just past the farm buildings, the road is left behind and there is a slight drop down to Low Sweden Bridge which crosses Scandale Beck. Across the bridge a farm track is followed as it curves up the hillside easing the gradient. Before long I can look back and see the rooftops of Ambleside and Lake Windermere beyond. At a sheepfold a footpath heads down to High Sweden Bridge which can be seen in the valley below. Staying on the ridge path the farm track becomes indistinct and before long you are walking on the open fellside. It’s here that I start to notice the wall, which follows the ridge line all the way up to Hart Crag. Wainwright mentions the wall in his section on High Pike, admiring its solid construction, particularly on the steep sections.
On the approach to the first summit of the day Low Pike, there are a couple of rocky bluffs, High and Low Brock Crags that have to be negotiated involving the use of hands on a couple of occasions. At one point there is a noticeable groove through the crags. Wainwright describes it as a ‘rock step’ and remarks about climbing it “there is no dignity in the proceeding, either up or down”. After the rock step some boggy ground is crossed and after some more semi scrambling the little rocky summit of Low Pike is reached. The summit is really just a rise of high ground along the main ridge to High Pike. A small cairn on a boulder right next to the wall marks the summit.
Having attained this rocky promontory, the way ahead can now be seen. The wall, stretching along the ridge like a miniature Hadrians, leads the eye all the way to the summit of High Pike, less than a mile away and six hundred feet above me. Looking back, the long blue streak of Windermere lake can be seen stretching away towards the South Lakes. Bow Fell and Crinkle Crags have snow on them.
There is a bit of a drop off Low Pike to get back down onto the ridge path that then leads steadily along the wall and up to the summit of High Pike. A bit more boggy ground has to be negotiated though and at one point I cross over the wall and then cross it again to reach the summit but there seems to be path on both sides.
High Pike has a larger cairn than its lower namesake and is perched airily close to the ridge. The views have now expanded with the increased elevation. Across Scandale I can see Red Pike has a dusting of snow and ahead Dove Crag, my next summit has some more substantial snow cover on it. Ominously, Fairfield is sitting under cloud.
Leaving High Pike, once again I follow the wall along the ridge and around the seven hundred metre mark the snow starts to appear. Patchy at first but soon there is a fair covering on the mountain. Thankfully, unlike my walks before Christmas there is no underlying ice. The snow is soft, unconsolidated and seems to be freshly fallen.
Dove Crag is marked by a summit cairn and is on more of a rounded plateau than Low and High Pikes. The top itself is clear but mist and cloud is swirling all around me and I can see Fairfield is under a blanket. I drink some hot chocolate, have a bite to eat and consider my options.
I could carry on and hope Fairfield clears. But the snow cover will only increase as height is gained and although I have my trail crampons, walking through snow is naturally slower. A chunk of daylight has gone, there are still five more summits on the round and if I carried on I know I would feel rushed which goes against my golden rule. So I decide that my alternative option would make for a more enjoyable, less pressured day. I will drop down to the Scandale Pass and enjoy the walk down Scandale Beck back to Ambleside. It’s also a route I have never walked before.
As is often the way, halfway down to Scandale the sun comes out and the clouds slowly started to clear off the tops. Naturally I wonder if I made the right decision but the older I get the more I am trying, both in walking and in life not to ‘layer’ my decisions with ‘what ifs’ but, having considered the choices and made a decision to stick with it. Armed with this positive thinking approach I carry on down to Scandale.
Scandale Pass is familiar to me as I was here just before Christmas climbing the Dodds and Red Pike in the ice and snow. By now the sun is shining and the day is bright and clear. It’s also warming up so I dispense with a couple of layers and finish off my hot chocolate whilst sat by the stile admiring the view down the valley. Windermere is now shimmering in the sunshine framed nicely by the valley sides.
Scandale turns out to be nicer than I imagined. The rounded glacial valley rises up to Red Pike on the East and the summits I have just climbed, Low and High Pikes on the West. The path is good, never too steep and the valley is green with a distinctly pastoral feel to it. Sheep are scattered at regular intervals munching away. About a third of the way down I reach an impressively well built sheepfold, so much so that it is marked on the 1:25,000 OS maps. For a good five minutes I sit in silence by the sheepfold, there is no wind and the only sound is the rushing waters of Scandale Beck flowing down the valley with an occasional ‘Baa’.
I enjoy the walk down through the valley in the sunshine and stop at High Sweden Bridge for a rest before the final stretch back down to Ambleside. High Sweden Bridge is a grade two listed packhorse bridge dating from the late 17th Century, that makes it over three hundred years old. For three hundred years this bridge has existed in this quiet corner of Lakeland. As I sit by the beck underneath its ancient stone arch I let my mind wander a little at the thought of how many different lives must have crossed over it and the great events of history that happened around them as they went about their regular, ordinary lives, working, laughing, loving. I make a point of standing on top of the bridge to mark my own ordinary life in 2022 and the history happening around me. We are living in troubled times, Russia has invaded Ukraine and the world watches helplessly for fear of an escalation. The ice at both Poles is melting faster than even the scientists expected. I hope in the sunshine on High Sweden Bridge that peace wins and I hope we learn to take care of the planet instead of destroying it and I hope that somebody will be able to stand on this spot in another three hundred years and enjoy the sunshine.
The birds are now singing in the woods that surround Sweden Bridge Lane and Scandale Beck can be seen and heard far below in the narrow valley dancing over numerous waterfalls on its way to the Lake. The lane parts company with Scandale Beck further down and opens up to provide great views over towards Rydal water, the Langdales and beyond.
Just before Ambleside I pass the stone folly that has the rather grandiose title “The Tower of Friendship and Beauty” and soon afterwards I am back in Ambleside, now thronged with people all enjoying the early spring sunshine.
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