Lake District Walks
Lord's Seat & Broom Fell
Date: 24th August 2008
Distance: 6.2 miles
Ascent: 1850 feet
Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
With: On my own
Start Grid Ref: NY181255
Walk Summary:
An enjoyable excursion into the heart of the Whinlatter Fells including visits to Lord's Seat and Broom Fell.
Route Summary: Darling How - Aiken Plantation - Lord's Seat - Broom Fell - Widow Hause - Graystones - Scawgill Bridge - Spout Force - Darling How.
Pictures:
1. Lord's Seat from the Aiken Valley
2. The access road to Aiken Plantation
3. Broom Fell
4. The top of Lord's Seat looking towards Binsey
5. Looking back at Lord's Seat from the path to Broom Fell
6. The top of Broom Fell
7. Graystones
8. Sale Fell
9. The top of Graystones looking towards the Loweswater Fells
10. Lord's Seat
11. Whinlatter
12. The rather shy Spout Force
Walk Detail: After a great deal of rain the previous evening and over night I did not expect to be walking on the Sunday before heading home. As it turned out I managed to get another good walk, the weather clearing quite nicely as the morning wore on.
After a very straight forward walk along the plantation road and then up a narrower path the walk got interesting (for unforeseen reasons) shortly after emerging from the trees between Lord’s Seat and Ullister Hill. I managed to put one foot in a boggy hole which caused my trousers to rip from my knee to my groin. It was very amusing but not very pracitical for walking!!
I found an outcrop of rock below the summit of Lord’s Seat where I could put my waterproof trousers to at least keep me decent. I didn’t hang around long on the top of Lord’s Seat due to the arrival of a large party of walkers and I felt self-conscious in the waterproof trousers.
The walk across to Broom Fell and then on to Graystones was as simple as it gets really for the Lakes. I liked the large cairn on Broom Fell and the good views it gave of Ling Fell and Sale Fell. I had a bit of difficulty (having not brushed up properly on my Wainwright) in determining the top of Graystones. By this time the sun had come out nicely and my legs were sweating somewhat in my waterproofs. What I should have been carrying was a spare pair of shorts!!
The descent from Graystones was as steep as it was direct. To my surprise I passed Bob who I had first met on Yewbarrow two day's before. He was attempting to climb up on to Graystones with his 70 odd year old mother who was moving very slowly. At the bottom I made a brief detour to view Spout Force and am glad to report that the path is much more walker friendly than in Wainwright's day. The trouser incident was amusing but it did ultimately make this pleasant ramble more heated than it needed to have been.
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