Lowther Walk

Another Wednesday so another walk for Tom, John, and myself. We headed to Lowther and a walk from the superb walks book published by Penrith Ramblers for an 8.5 mile walk from Lowther and including the lovely village of Askham. The weather forecast last night was not good so we decided to delay our departure to 10.00am as it looked as if by lunch time the rain would clear. We were lucky however as it was dry at 10.00am and we never had a drop of rain all day. We were hardly as far as Canonbie when I realised I had forgotten my camera so these photos are courtesy of John and taken on his I-Phone. The above picture is Lowther Castle which is in the process of a big makeover which looks as if it is costing a small fortune and I dont know if it will be suitable to live in when it is completed. More research is required so I will provide the information at a later date if I can find out.

As we reached the higher ground on the walk towards Askham Fell we passed by this cultivation area which had been used in the 16th Century. I dont know what kind of crops the settlers there would grow but it looked very impressive but nowadays only sheep graze there.

This is the highest point on the walk at Heughscar Hill and it gives superb views over Ullswater. At this point we took a wrong turning and missed the small gap in the trees that we were supposed to go through so we added another mile to the walk. Can't even blame Tom this time as he was not in charge of the map. Maybe John just wanted to make it a 10 mile walk.The walk was completed by 3.30pm and was just under the 10 miles, although John added the extra half mile along the road in the time it took Tom to change his boots. If you know Tom you will realise that John had plenty of time to do his extra half mile.