| WalkingWomen ----Lake District Photo Gallery |
Welcome to the photo gallery!
Here you'll find photographs and some written detail of everywhere we stay in or trek to. And a menu to explore the page! Or connect to the main WalkingWomen site?You may have arrived on this page via a search engine. This is the unframed version of the WalkingWomen site only for browsers that do not support frames. Connect to the WalkingWomen Home Page? Photos of the Lake DistrictClick on any of the place names below to see pictures of that area. To read a title of a picture, rest your mouse on the photo for a few seconds. |
Here
you'll find pictures and details of everywhere we stay or trek to, and other
places mentioned in the holiday descriptions. There is a map to show where each
is located. 
Most of the landscape
photos on this page and elsewhere were taken by walking women of one kind or
another. We want to thank Jeanette Murphy, Judith Quiggin, Su Francis, Gay
Baynes, Anne Hall, Lucia Cadei, Rosie Jeffries, Lettie Hunt, Hazel Showell,
Naomi Clarke & Celia Clarke for their kind permission and the great
difference their photos make to this site.
copyright of the
person named. Any photos without a name attached are
Ambleside 
Ambleside youth hostel is most attractive as a jumping off point
for several reasons: it's a former luxury hotel right on the shores of Lake
Windermere with rooms that are mostly 2-6 bedded; it has all day access, an
excellent canteen refectory system, and the YHA shuttle bus will give you a
free lift to the hostel from any train arriving at Windermere before 8.30pm in
summer - or 6.30pm in winter.
Rydal Water is the
lovely lake between Ambleside and Grasmere. The slopes of Loughrigg Fell run
down to the water along one side, and the area offers many gentle walks either
around the lake, or towards Grasmere or Ambleside. Higher level walks vary from
gentle Loughrigg Fell opposite, to Heron Pike behind Rydal as a route up to
Fairfield.
Grasmere is adjacent to Rydal Water and
a superb base for walking. It is centrally located despite its relative
proximity still to Windermere station, and from the village you have a very
wide range of walks right on your door step. The area itself is beautiful, with
lovely woods, more open fell sides, several small tarns, and of course -
Grasmere lake itself.
The most suitable
accommodation we have found in Grasmere is Glenthorne Guest House - excellent
food, lovely situation, and very good value (mostly ensuite rooms except for
the singles, but then, there's also no single supplement charged!)
Elterwater and Little
Langdale are both small pretty villages in the Langdale valley with plenty of
gentle walks close by. Elterwater also possesses the very popular Britannia Inn
- good for a lunchtime halt or an evening visit from Langdale or Elterwater
youth hostels!
Further up the Langdale valley is Great Langdale with
its much photographed and distinctive 'Pikes'. The best walks in the area are
intermediate and high level - and fabulous - especially if one avoids some of
the most popular tracks. The area has been popular with climbers since the
earliest climbing clubs but no ropes are involved to go walking
here!
Patterdale is the broad valley at the head of Ullswater, and
though less easily accessible by train, it has some of the nicest walking in
the Lake District. Hellvelyn and Fairfield dominate one side of the valley and
offer several different strenuous routes to their summits. However there are
also plenty of intermediate walks on the other side, up to Angle Tarn and High
Street (once a Roman road), or cutting through to Ullswater as it curves around
the fells.
Borrowdale is at the far end of Derwent Water from
Keswick. For many people it is the most beautiful valley in the Lake District.
The victorians loved its wild contours, its "vast many edges of precipices,
bold projections of rocks....and wild romantic spots, which command the most
delicious scenes"! Although it takes a little more effort to reach than the
southern Lakes, it is very special!
Borrowdale has a wide range of walks at every level: beautiful
woodland walks beneath broad leaf trees and larches, paths beside the River
Derwent and along the Derwent Water lake shore. There are relatively low-level
favourite like the Allendale Ramble, Watendlath Tarn and Cat Bells.
If you wish for a day
off from walking, you could equally hire a canoe or sailing dinghy from
Plattyplus, a small family owned watersports centre within a mile of Derwent
Water youth hostel (instruction also available).
Close to Derwent Water we stay at the Howe
Keld Hotel or Derwent Water youth hostel. In Borrowdale we stay in Stonethwaite
village at Stonethwaite Farm B&B or the Langstrath Inn. 
Wasdale is overlooked by
England's highest 'mountain' Scafell Pike, and contains England's deepest lake
- Wast Water, and smallest church. It is one of the more remote western valleys
that we visit on high level trekking holidays - and simply glorious! The walks
in the area are among the most challenging and the most rewarding. From the top
of Scafell one can sometimes see to Scotland. 
There is
very little B&B accommodation left in Wasdale, so we are fortunate to be
able to stay at Burnthwaite Farm in Wasdale Head. Burnthwaite Farm must have
the largest Aga cooker ever built!
Ennerdale is the valley that
lies between Wasdale and Buttermere. To see the upper part of the valley beyond
the lake you have to walk - there is no public road access! Much of Ennerdale
is forested, but the upper part is wild, open and dramatic with Haystacks,
Brandreth, Green & Great Gables, Kirk Fell and Pillar forming a stunning
skyline of high fells all around. The only place to stay in upper Ennerdale is
Black Sail youth hostel - an experience in itself: gas lamps rather than
electricity, yet it still manages to supply a hot shower and great food. Here
are a few pictures:
Buttermere is a favourite with many people.
It boasts wonderful walks of all grades, and some absolutely classic lake and
mountain views. Haystacks at the head of the valley has a very distictive
outline, and more that one person has favoured its summit as the place they
would like their ashes scattered.
inaccessible western lakes, we will be visiting here mainly on
intermediate and high level treks. 
Coniston is in the South West of the Lake District - a
beautiful long lake overlooked by the dramatic fells of Wetherlam and Coniston
Old Man (renamed the Crone of Coniston by women at Christmas!) Much of the
walking here is intermediate to high level, but there are also some wonderful
gentle walks - along the Walna Scar road and around towards quiet Tilberthwaite
Valley. 
In October 2000 we stayed at Holly How
youth hostel in Coniston village as part of a trek from Elterwater - and
climbed Wetherlam before returning to Elterwater. 
