10.97 miles, 2,708 feet, 3 hours 12 minutes: Loughrigg trails, taking in the Roman Ruins, Fishgarths Wood, Todd and Ivy Crags, and down to the road at High Close. Overcast, with the cloud base at about 400 feet in places, higher elsewhere. No sun nor wind nor rain. Terrain mainly dry, but wet and slippery in a few places. Not many about.
8.9 miles, 2,891 feet, 2 hours 58 minutes: Wansfell Pike and Wansfell true top. Overcast, with some lovely shafts of sunshine. Cloud base at about 2,000 feet. A cold wind from the west. Terrain mainly dry. Fairly quiet on the fell.
9.4 miles, 3,089 feet, 2 hours 51 minutes: Loughrigg trails. Sunshine and clouds, the cloud base being above the high tops. A strong cold wind from the north. No rain. Terrain mainly damp; wet and slippery in places. A few walkers about on the main routes.
13.23 miles, 3,716 feet, 4 hours 5 minutes: Rothay Bridge - Miller Bridge - Rydal - Fairfield Horseshoe clockwise - Miller Bridge - Rothay Bridge. Ascending, I went to the left of Heron Pike's two tops and to the left of Great Rigg; then over Hart Crag to stay out of the wind to an extent, to the right of Dove Crag, and descended with the wall on my left. Overcast, with the cloud base initially at about 2,000 feet, later 600 feet or so. Intermittent drizzle/light rain, a strong cold wind from the south west, terrain anything from damp to saturated; very slippery in many places. About twenty walkers on the fell, and two other runners.
5.28 miles, 550 feet, 65 minutes: laps around the Roman Ruins. Sunshine and clouds, intermittent drizzle, and a very strong blustery wind from the north west. Terrain mainly damp grass, with occasional muddy patches. Lots of dog walkers about, and one fellow runner.
Given the forecast of 50 mph gusts even in Ambleside, I thought I had better stay low. I see they had a gust of 134 mph in the Cairngorms.
Very sensible. It was pretty blowy this morning for my run too. We avoided the ridges once the wind had picked up.
8.33 miles, 3,295 feet, 3 hours 3 minutes: Wansfell Pike, including twice up and twice down the race route from/to the kissing gate. Initially sunshine and clouds, with the high tops just hidden. Later a widespread layer of cloud developed at about 1,500 feet. No significant wind whilst I was out; some light drizzle towards the end. Terrain surprisingly dry, presumably from yesterday's wind. Lots of walkers on the Wansfell steps, and three fellow runners.
The curious case of footpath L96a, or We really don't want the plebs gawping at our Elizabethan mansion.
Langley Priory is a mansion, partly built in 1570, the remainder dating from 1690. A little googling will reveal that it is sometimes hired out as a wedding venue, but is principally a private residence.
Many years ago I noticed on the OS map that there is a Public Footpath passing quite close to the front of the house; the Right of Way then ends, with no connection to any other path. On one previous occasion I tried to walk along the path, but gave up where it went into a cultivated field, with no sign of any trod.
Today I cycled out via Belton, and left my bike close to Woodhouse Farm, less than half a mile from Langley Priory. I started out along the Public Footpath, which soon entered the cultivated field. No sign of any trod through the beans, either on the path I wanted or on the other Public Footpath across the field. However, there was a reasonably wide unploughed field margin, and I decided that I could surely defend my presence on that to any irate farmer, as a better alternative to marching through the crops.
Following the field margin to where I was fairly close to the back of the house, I saw a gap in the hedge, stepped across a dry ditch and walked a few yards to where I got a good view of the fishponds and part of the house; I didn't go further, since if I could see the house, then I could be seen from the house. The fishponds would explain the grey heron I had seen flying across the field.
Continuing along the field margin, I came to a little bridge across the same dry ditch. There was a notice attached to it, explaining that this was Footpath L96a in Isley Walton parish, and that this was a No Through Route: refer to plan below. There was a large-scale map below, showing the Rights of Way in the area. Everything on this notice was correct, but I couldn't help feeling that it was intended to discourage ramblers from continuing along the path. Well, I did continue along the path, to where I got a splendid view of the beautiful mansion, and stood there gawping for a minute or two. Then I returned, across the little bridge to the field margin, and carried on to where I met the other path across the field, to continue my walk on a roughly triangular route back to where I had left my bike. The ride back home was via Long Whatton.
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
9.35 miles, 2,820 feet, 3 hours 1 minute: Loughrigg trails. Sunshine and high clouds, a cold wind from the north west. No rain; a thin scattering of white stuff is visible on the very highest tops. Terrain mainly damp, though wet and slippery in places. Quite a few walkers about.
Some more trees are down, and the sound of multiple chainsaws is back with us.
Coming down Otley Chevin on my way to waitrose this evening i noticed a few small logs by the Danefield gate and called in to grab them on the way back. It's funny how things look smaller from the car, they were huge. Each of the 3 was a good 35kg and required good lifting technique to get in the boot, also oozing with resin being pine, and i had to wash my hands in olive oil when i got home to loosen it. My clothes, however, are ruined; plastered in sticky ooze and i'm not sure it it actually washes out.
3 logs, 105kg, clothes ruined.
Luke Appleyard (Wharfedale)- quick on the dissent
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