Latrigg walk - walks from Keswick

Route: Latrigg

Area: Northern Lake District

Date of walk: 8th December 2016

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance: 6.1 miles

Weather: Rain and fog at first, gradually improving

We last climbed Latrigg just over a year ago and on that occasion we were able to cross the River Greta via the old railway bridge after descending from the fell. On the following day the bridge would be washed away by the devastating December floods. It has not yet been replaced, and so we had to plan a slightly shorter route today

We parked as usual near Spooney Green Lane and followed the lane uphill, crossing the bridge over the busy A66, and following the route of the Cumbria Way. The weather was poor, with light rain and fog and at times there was hardly any visibility. From time to time the clouds parted to reveal tantalising glimpses of blue sky and we wondered if our route would take us high enough to see a cloud inversion

Just after the zigzag section we had some good views of the north west fells before the weather closed in again and when we reached the summit of Latrigg there were no views at all. We decided to linger in the hope that the skies would clear – and lo and behold after about 10 minutes they did, and we had some fantastic views over Keswick and Derwent Water. We could hardly believe our luck

We descended along the ridge to the foot of the fell and started the return leg along the forest track through Brundholme Wood. Forestry operations were in progress and the area was a complete mess. We wished we’d followed the parallel metalled track a little further below. In the end we went off piste to join this track and from here walked along the lower slopes of Latrigg, just above the noisy A66, until we arrived back at the Cumbria Way and retraced our steps back to the start

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Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)