Route: Silver Bay Ullswater
Area: Eastern Lake District
Date of walk: 28th December 2016
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 4.6 miles
Weather: Sunny, cold wind
A good weather forecast tempted me to plan a high level walk today, but a persistent cold and cough made me feel less ambitious. An easy ramble was the order of the day, and so we consulted a small guidebook ‘Easy Rambles around Patterdale and Ullswater’ by Vivienne Crow, which Santa Claus had recently acquired from the Catstycam outdoor shop
Although we’ve walked along the eastern shore of Ullswater many times, it was only after we looked at the guidebook that we noticed a higher level path above the shore (it’s obvious when you check the OS map). We haven’t walked this path before so today’s route was decided – Walk 6 from the book – ‘Silver Bay and Silver Hill’
We started from the George Starkey Hut in the village of Patterdale, near the head of Ullswater. We followed the track to Side Farm and picked up the delightful path along the eastern shore of Ullswater, part of the Ullswater Way. We followed this until we reached Silver Point, from where we headed up to the col beside Silver Hill. We made a quick detour to the top of the hill, struggling through a thick plantation of juniper bushes, and then climbed back down to continue along the high level path above Ullswater
The views from this path were wonderful and it was with some reluctance that we eventually forked off to the right to descend back to Side Farm. From there we retraced our steps back to Patterdale to end a short but very sweet walk
For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box
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)
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
Before we headed east, I made a quick dawn visit to Buttermere (one good thing about late December is that dawn is 9am)
Volcano erupting behind Fleetwith Pike
Our Christmas gifts to each other had a lakeland/walking theme as usual - no need for microspikes today, but we’d take the walking guide along with us
St Patrick’s Church Patterdale at the start of today’s walk
We pass by the George Starkey Hut to follow the track to Side Farm
The bridge over Goldrill Beck, with Side Farm ahead
View along the beck in the direction of Ullswater
Looking south
Side Farm - we turn left after walking through the farmyard
Looking back to Patterdale as we pass above the farm
The head of Ullswater comes into view, and the Helvellyn range in the background
Looking back along the path
We follow the path above the lake, part of the Ullswater Way
Looking across to tree clad Keldas
One of the Ullswater Steamers at Glenridding Pier
Keldas again
Silver Hill - our path will take us round the back of it
Looking back along the path
Bonnie waits for us to catch up
Lingy Holm and Norfolk Island
Looking back towards Devil’s Chimney…
Bonnie
Woodland on Birk Fell at the halfway point of the walk
Looking down to Silver Point and Norfolk Island as we climb uphill to join the higher level path back to the start
We make a steep and very short ascent to the top of Silver Hill
View from Silver Hill - there’s a thick covering of juniper bushes and it’s not an easy place to walk, so we descended the way we’d come
We follow the path over the col
The delightful path stretches out ahead of us
Looking across to Glenridding
One of the Ullswater Steamers passes by below
Looking down to the lower level path we’d followed earlier
The head of Ullswater
Looking back
Bench with a view
Looking towards Hartsop
We pass by some disused quarries
Side Farm below and the track back to Glenridding. We carry on past the farm for a short distance
We leave the valley path here to descend by the dry stone wall
We arrive in the small hamlet of Rooking
The circuit is complete as we arrive back at Side Farm, and from here we retrace our steps back to the start of a wonderful short walk
