Coming out of Lockdown in Buttermere

The weather came out of lockdown with a vengeance. 

As pubs and shops and campsites opened high winds and torrential rain tore through the Lake District. 

Deterring all but the most hardened from the hills.

I decided sometime ago that high winds and hills were two thing which really shouldn’t be combined, especially if you have a camera fetish. 

Hard to hold a camera still.

Herdwick sheep

There are deep, sheltered valleys between the steep hills here, so I headed to Buttermere to walk low level round Buttermere and Crummock water.  Something I’d never done before.  The valley and its little lakes having just been a place to camp or start a hike up a hill.

With bright shafts of sunlight and the frequently black backdrop of storm clouds, it was the perfect camera walk.  OK so sunlight was occasionally interrupted with staccato blasts of rain and  a sudden descent of mist which all but obscured the view in a haze of milky white.

Mist over Crummock Water

I set off past the Syke Farm tea room, making a mental note to call in for coffee and cake at the end.  Heading along the north western edge of Buttermere.  Bellow the heights of Robinson and High Snockrigg.  There are some wonderful names up  here! 

Fleetwith Pike

All the way down this side, Fleetwith Pike looms ahead.  There are a multitude of ways to to up Fleetwith, one being a relatively easy hike from Honister Pass, where you can  cheat with the car for much of the way.  Last summer I hiked up the front nose when on a bit of a YHA staycation.

view to Mellbreak

Take a sharp right across the end of the lake.  A farm track built up so avoiding wet feet, after the much needed rain.  Staying on the low track along the lake, water pounded down gills, which only a week ago were dry.  The west ridge above rises steeply to High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike, folding over into the Ennerdale Valley.  Again, my most recent traverse of them all being last summer.  The first on the Coast to Coast route. 

Crummock Water

Scale Beck rushes down Scale Force, separating the southern ridge from Mellbreak.  I remembered the Crummock shore line from a cold winter’s walk over Mellbreak. 

Scale Beck

The water levels were high so negotiating the turn at the end of Crummock was a little tricky, but made for a good photo!  Initially, the trek back to Buttermere is a pleasantly maintained lake shore track.   As with Buttermere, I’d only used Crummock as a bouncing off point to  Grasmoor, which butts its end almost to the shore, or to visit the beautiful bluebells of Rannerdale . 

Crummock Water

Buttermere is then just a KM or so away, there is a way of missing the road by a deviation over the end of Rannerdale, which would be preferable on a pre COVID summer’s day, but with little traffic, I took the lazy flat way.

Crummock Water

And didn’t forget my coffee and cake at Syke Farm Tearoom!