Came out of my office upon another dull and cloudy evening, yet spotted a break in the clouds towards the Esthawaite Valley, this was the moment, you might say. Promptly rang Simon, only he cried off, still claiming exhaustion from our previous hike, I was not to be deterred. Made a brief return to my house to change and collect my boots, then I made a rapid drive to leave my car at the main Hawkshead car park.
Over the years, I've walked and cycled extensively in this area, it's all fairly low level and you're not far from all those good forrest tracks in Grizedale Wood. My planned walk for this eve was a small hill, Latterbarrow, which I quite like to do every year, if I can find the time. There's an easy level walk across the fields to the track from Colt House, which you cross over then continue up on the path to join the road to Low Wrey. It's an easy narrow country lane on which you face a slight incline, but this is easily compensated by the wonderful aroma of wild garlic which seems to be in abundance on this route. Just past the Loanthwaite Lane junction, there begins the path up to Latterbarrow, which soon changes from a gentle track into a short but complete slog to the top. It's perhaps a good job that someone has built a stone staircase halfway up this hill. Recently someone asked me if I'd ever been to the top of Latterbarrow, it made me recall an incident when I was in my early twenties, I'd carried a bag of cement up this path to repair the obelisk at the summit. These days, it's a struggle just to get myself up there!
The views are always stunning from this little hill, you've got a marvellous unbroken panoramic view from the bottom of Esthwaite Water, up to Hawksead, the Langdale Valley, Fairfield and down Windermere as far as Bowness Bay.
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