Troutbeck Tongue

31 December 2010

The best weather today was predicted to be in the southern part of the Lake District and east of Coniston, so with fog the main concern I opted for Troutbeck Tongue which is also of fairly modest altitude - which is always good after a tiring car journey.

Troutbeck Tongue is just visible in the centre of the picture, mostly out of the mist. Some patches of ice linger on the path, but they were easily avoided.

Crossing the bridge over Hagg Gill, the Tongue is ahead.

From part-way up the Tongue, a look south along the misty Troutbeck valley

George at the summit cairn

To create a bit of variety to the return, we descended west over pathless ground to this bridge over Trout Beck - I didn't want to cross it, just to look at it.

The ancient slate bridge is delightful - it would look better in sunshine, of course.

The rather excitable dog at Troutbeck Park farm having successfully seen us off, we continued on Ing Lane along the valley bottom

When Ing Lane turns up towards Town head, we took the old bridleway of Truss Lane. To avoid a walk along the main road, we took the field paths which led us directly back to the car which is parked next to the sign on the other side of this wall. This stile and the previous one were rather difficult for George, who was quite game for the steps but found the gap at the top too narrow for him.

Zoom in for more detail, or click to view larger map in new window

Never as much fun in mist and damp, but a pleasant exploration and hopefully a good warm-up for better to come.

Total distance 9.9 km and 407 metres of ascent in 3 hours 5 mins