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Route No. 293 - Monday 25 May 2009
A Bank Holiday stroll
Gummer's How circuit - 3km
Overlooking Windermere
English Lake District . . . .
Ordnance Survey route map on
the Landranger series map base.
View the route in Google Earth
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer OL7 The English Lakes South-eastern area
at 1:25000
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Start of the path up Gummer's How
My son-in-law directed us to Gummer's How overlooking Windermere.
From the caravan we drove through Newby Bridge where there was a good
deal of bank holiday traffic. Just through Newby Bridge we turned right
off the the main road to climb up to a little car park in Astley's Plantation
at map ref. SD390876.
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We had been staying with our daughter's family in a large static caravan
on a site near Grange-over-Sands for the Bank Holiday weekend and for
once the weather had been perfect with bright sunshine and a nice breeze.
My wife and I had to get home early today but we couldn't leave the
Lake district without a little walk in the sunshine.
A patch of bluebells by the path
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Looking across Windermere from the start of the climb up Gummer's How |
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Climbing up Gummer's How
The path climbed up through some open woodland with the views over
Windermere to our left getting better and better as we climbed.
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Setting off from the car park we took a path through the woods following
the road up the hill for about 150m. Here we crossed the road and went
through a gate on to the path to Gummer's How.
Climbing up Gummer's How
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The top of Gummer's in sight |
The whole length of Windermere from the top of Gummer's How |
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Trig point at the top of Gummer's How
The best view of the lake is from the edge about 30m northeast of
the trig point. After admiring the view for a while with many other
families out for a bank holiday walk we began our return route following
a path north from the trig point.
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After just over a kilometer we reached the bare rocky top of Gummer's
How with its trig point and a great view up and down the length of Windermere.
To be strictly accurate you can't see the lake from the trig point (map
ref. SD390884).
Leaving the top of Gummer's How on the north side
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Walking down the north side of Gummer's How |
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A patch of tormentill by the path
The path was cut with the fresh tracks of a small herd of cattle, but
there was no sign of them. We continued following the path heading south
and down the hill until, at map ref. SD389879, we re-joined the path
we had used earlier to climb up Gummer's How.
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After about 350m at map ref. SD392886 we took the path to the right
across a bowl of open rocky moorland with patches of bog. The path led
us round to the right until we were heading south and following a wall
at the boundary of some woodland.
Heading back to rejoin the path up Gummer's How
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Cattle grazing in the woodland as we approached the road on our return |
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Looking back to the top of Gummer's How
The time included a couple of longish stops to sit and admire the views.
After our walk we began the drive home to find that the bank holiday
traffic was surprisingly light and we stopped in Kirkby Stephen for
a late lunch of fish and chips. It's not a bad life.
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Near here, above us on the wooded hillside were the cattle quietly
grazing amongst the trees. From there we retraced our steps back to
the road and through the woods back to the car park. The whole walk
had been about 3km and had taken us 90mins.
Returning to the car park in Astley's Plantation
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