You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
What would you do ?
Couple? Family?
From experience, going to great biking areas when you can't bike is most frustrating. Did it when injured last year, didn't enjoy looking at lines and start points for great rides from the car.
I'd go to another area I wouldn't normally go to because it had no decent biking opportunities, and save the Lakes for when I could go biking.
Go for walks... lovely scenery to take in when you aren't concentrating on not going over the bars.
Tarn Hows is worth a wander round if you want a suggestion.
Fell walking and real ale brew pubs.
and cake.
Used to live in Grange over Sands, so know lots of tourist stuff...
Deliberate no bike week, just me and Mrs TLR for hiking and scrambling.....
What about great cake and cafes, nice restaurants and perhaps cinema ?
We're staying in Coniston........
[i]Deliberate no bike week, just me and Mrs TLR for hiking and scrambling.....[/i]
Why? 😳
But then I don't understand Veggie's either, why take away the pleasure - its not like you'll have an 'after-life' to do it all again.
Because the week after ill be on a weeks biking holiday 😛
My deepest sympathies.
No need for sympathy...it's our choice for a week off the bikes......will ate the biking week even better....
We're taking Mrs TLRs MX5 so any good drives recommended ?
Cinema? Try Zeffirellis in Ambleside. Chester's cafe at Skelwith Bridge is nice for coffee and cake too.
Blencathra via Sharp Edge then back down Hall's Fell ridge is probably my favourite walk/scramble in the Lakes. Stunning views on a decent day and a bit of excitement to make up for not being on a bike. 🙂
Drive over west to duddon valley and pub in seathwaite, back over wrynose.
If you like ridges you could do helvellyn via striding and swirrel edges, then up blencathra via sharp edge and down via hallsfell ridge. That's 2 days. Get over to was****er and do scafell & scafell pike. Get a rowing boat on windermere, a steamer on ullswater and maybe go ape at grizedale? You could also walk round grassmere, walk on loughrigg fell above rydal water. And so on and so on...
As for mx5 passes, honnister and wrynose are the ones that spring to mind.
Imnotamused, Grum, boxelder, this is theinfo I'm after, thanks !
Any more recommendations ?
Shortish but scenic walk with lovely views of windermere - orrest head above windermere. Start at windermere station and walk uphill to the left of the hotel.
Maybe go to coniston and walk up coniston old man, then back down for a pint in one of the nice pubs.
Hawkshead is nice for a bimble and a pint/pub meal.
If you like scrambles then jack's rake up the side of pavey arc in the beautiful langdales. Straightforward with a bit of exposure. Loads of route guides on net for it.
My missus was ok with sharp edge and striding edge but didn't enjoy jack's rake at all - found it a bit sketchy for some reason.
Buttermere is very varied, with walks and scrambles for all abilities. The assent to Red Pike is very rewarding, as is Fleetwith Pike, while Rannerdale Knotts is the perfect introduction for those who aren't used to the fells.
Can't recommend the slow cooked lamb at the Kirkstile Inn at Loweswater enough. Worth going to Cumbria for that alone 😉
Nice one mangatank.... Keep it coming please 😛
There is a great little walk around and over Gowbarrow Fell from the NT car park and cafe. Good views down Ullswater to High Street etc.
Oh, one more thing: [i]Magnificent[/i] roman fort at the top of Hardknott pass! And the road to get there...well it's a legend amongst roadies...
Kentmere and Fairfield horseshoes? (Not on the same day obviously)
Tower bank arms for proper good pub
Drunken duck for posh pub
Chesters for coffee and cake
Skiddaw = best views in the lakes (if its clear obviously)
Driving roads, kirkstone will be OK if you get a clear run on it, but thats unlikely. I would get my drive in by crossing the northern pennines on the way there. Dunmail raise might be OK for a blast though.
Puzzle museum and the (Lakeland pedlar) veggie cafe (I'm no veggie) in Keswick are good too, if you are having a potter
ETA +1 on Fairfield Horseshoe, great easy ridge walking with excellent views.
Great stuff folks, almost a weeks activity covered.... More pub recommendations as Mrs TLR is driving 😯
Standard Dog & Gun recommendation if you get as far as Keswick.
Take a picnic up to castlerigg and also go find sunkenkirk.
Sunkenkirk ?
+1 for Dog and Gun in Keswick, with their goulash and XP. There's a cinema is Keswick and Ambleside, but that seems a bit of a waste. Then there's always Cars of the Stars and the Pencil museum....
Do you climb? The Lake District is a great place, with or without a bike.
There are scrambles on Coniston Old Man and Swirl How near where you are staying, as well as some harder stuff on Dow Crag.
The Aquarium at Newby Bridge is pretty good, especially for a family, with boat trip options near by.
Pubs? Dungeon Ghyll, good selection in Hawkshead, and several foody ones that featured in [s]Alan Partridge's[/s] Steve Coogan's The Trip.
Cars of the Stars has gone.
@the_lecht_rocks. Sunkenkirk is a wonderful Cumbrian stone circle (I think I actually prefer it to Castlerigg in some ways). More commonly known as Swinside stone circle.
The Aquarium is Phish even my daughter was disapointed with it,The Car museum was worth a punt it even has loads of bikes.Grizedale is worth it for a drive and some decent walks around with views.
Chester's cafe at Skelwith Bridge is nice for coffee and cake too.
Aye, queuing for it should occupy a good couple of days, if my last trip there is anything to go by 🙁
You could pop over to the Blacksmith's Arms at Broughton Mills; that's not so far from Coniston and a nice twisty road to drive along. That said, the Church House Inn is en route and that's a great pub too. Hell, visit them both!
If you head further south, Cafe Ambio at the Motor Lakeland Museum in Backbarrow, and the cafe at Holker Hall, both serve tasty food at reasonable prices.
Holker Hall.... Used to drive past every day as an apprentice !
May is a great time in the Lakes. We have a place in the north east, near Penrith, and one thing that I'd say is that it can take a long time to get around the lakes, so bear that in mind. I'd guess that Coniston to Buttermere would be well over an hour.
Nice walks near you
Around loughrigg, and you could case it for a ride at another time
Crinkle Crags and Bowfell from the three shires stone at the top of wrynose - fantastic walk, Bowfell is terrific
There's a scramble up the front of Dow Crag, called easy gully I think, which is a much more interesting way up to the Old Man.
A bit further afield
Blencathra up sharp edge, and Helvellyn up striding edge are both great walks
Also up Whiteside from Crummock Water, over hopegill head and up onto crag hill, then down over wandope and whiteless pike.
Wainwright s are a great way to plan these.
Non walking you could try the steam yacht gondola on Coniston, and I'm sure that biketreks in Ambleside and wheelbase in staveley have demo bikes!
Have a good time
There are walks a plenty but the Sharps Edge trail up Blencathra is an experience not to forget. Not particularly hard but certainly exhilerating!
A couple of things we have tried in recent years include the Via Ferrata at Honister Slate Mine (brilliant!) and we also went gorge walking which was good as well but dependent upon the amount of recent rainfall.
[url= http://www.honister-slate-mine.co.uk/via_ferrata_at_honister.asp ]Via Ferrata[/url]
[url= http://www.mobileadventure.co.uk/outdoor-activities/ghyll-scrambling ]Ghyll Scrambling[/url]
If you are looking for a pub then take your pick from these:
[url= http://www.theangelinnbowness.com/ ]The Angel[/url] at Bowness - great food and drink made all the better if its a sunny day and you can sit outside
[url= http://masonsarmsstrawberrybank.co.uk/ ]The Masons Arms[/url] at Strawberry Bank - home brewed and imported beer along with very good food.
Hah, te masons arms... Was there 20 years ago just enforce we left Grange !
the_lecht_rocks - Member
What would you do ?
Don't drive like an idiot, you might knock me off my bike 😀
Depends which dates you're going, but you could always heckle the idiots trying to ride their bikes up Hardknott on the 12th.
In an mx 5 with the top down must does are kirksten pass coniston to ullswater and then round the base of ullswater. Also the drive to was****er not to be missed.
Trevh, nice..... Anything else worth driving ?
Trevh, nice..... Anything else worth driving ?
With the top down and Dre 2001 on, laps of Ambleside
Looking good outside Gaynors ?
Agree that Helvellyn and Blencathra round the edges are hard to beat. Closer to home, I think the ascent of Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite is an oft missed classic with an unmarked descent down the obvious ridge that points straight down to Tilberthwaite. If weather is crap, the loop around Hidge Close is nice with a retreat into the Three Shires pub. Agree with Grum, Jacks Rake does catch a few out, there is one exposed bit about 2/3 of the way up.
For value The Outgate pub is a change from the better, but more expensive Drunken Duck.
Are you swimmers with wetsuit? If you are in Duddon Valley on way to Hardknott, have a quick swim in the little gorge by Birk's Bridge
Hardknott pass if you have balls of steel with a rear wheel drive
Brilliant stuff..... More please ???
Looking good outside Gaynors ?
😀 I dont think you can fail in an mx5 with the top down!
If you smash it over hardknott, you could always have a bash on the larl ratty, have a look round muncaster castle, go back to eskdale and then have a drive back over birker fell (nice run), down the ulpha valley, over wrynose and back to Conistown.
Edit, or go [s]right[/s] sorry, left then right after Birker and take on the Blacksmiths arms as per one of those other suggestions.
Golden Rule in Ambleside
Wrynose and Hardknott Pass
Scafell Pike, Helvellyn, Fairfield Horseshoe
Whatever you do whether its driving or walking or swimming you'll be grinning from ear to ear all week hope its dry for you as our mx5 is a pig in the wet specially if you try to hoof it you don't want to end. Up in a lake.
Ullswater west side for a walk and return via the Steamer with a wee libation on the on board bar.
Fairfield Horseshoe is ace.
Zeffirellis for great food and a film.
Th Giggling Goose is grand for coffee.
Striding Edge for a bit of scrambling fun.
Rowing boat mellowness on Derwent Water.
Cat Bells for a relatively short walk with cracking views. Castle Crag is lovely too.
Hard knott and Wrynose would be great in the Mazda. We had a Eunos Roadster which was a hoot to drive on the Lake roads.
The cinema in Keswick is an old fashioned classic and well worth a visit. Abrahams does great sticky toffee pudding while Casa Bella up the road does terrific ice cream.
Coniston Old Man is a classic walk too.
Honistor Via Ferrata is also worth the price of admission.
There is loads to do though you will wish you had the bike!!!!
Oh and I forgot Blencathra. Some cracking ascent options to be had while the footpath off of Skiddaw is brilliant.
Cheers
Sanny
Ghyll scrambling is fantastic
www.ghyllscrambling.co.uk/
Gorge walking at conniston take spare clothes and shoes
Used to live in Grange over Sands
That would make you a retiree then, and there's only one way out.
Are you sure you're not dead?
My grandparents lived there, happy memories of bringing the average age of the town down with my brothers whilst galavanting up and down Hampsfell. 🙂
Recently "discovered" Bleaberry Fell for an amazingly quite walk with brill views. Never seen more than 2 other people up there. Needs to be dry though to enjoy the walk.
spot on folks - some gems in amongst all that - will put together an itinerary ASAP....
any more for any more 🙂
thanks again !
'Chesters'* GRRRRRR please be aware that their dress code is lemon/salmon poloshirt with contrasting lemon/salmon sweater over your shoulders to be accesorised with a gleaming 4x4 and children called sebastian and Ptolomy and be prepared to follow the missus round their overpriced unnecessary acoutriment purveyory nodding while she picks stuff up she has absolutely no intention of buying and demands you have some kind of opinion on it then you can drive to the next simalr location and pay afurther £40 for two coffees and a sandwich before taking a tour of someone elses house who died a hundred years ago who wrote some books you couldn't give a monkeys about and get charged £15 a head for the privelege of looking a collection of stuff that wasn't even theirs to begin with but just bought by some bearded clot who thinks its evocative of the kind of ironing board that they actually may or may not have had then you can go out to dinner to some pubmaster owned hovel where the carpet sticks to your feet and condiments are served in sachets and the chef is some scouse adolescent in hiding from the probation service........IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? IS IT????!!!!!
Take your bike.
*applies equally to many lake district facilities for
^^^
you should be renamed destabiliser mukka......
Ta,
more constructively: being based in coniston you could spend the week hoying bits of scrap cars in to hodge close, most therapeutic.
more constructively: being based in coniston you could spend the week hoying bits of scrap cars in to hodge close, most therapeutic.
😆
Those orange Kankku vehicles look like the ideal vehicle for this. Most of the people that drive them don't seem to have much in the way of a brain either. All you'll have to do is tell em there's another overpriced supply of coffee and soup and unlimted bits of shaped slate, and they'll drive themselves over the edge.
If its glorious weather, another option is to drive to barrow and buy loads of disposable bbq's, empty crates of fosters and half eaten packs of burgers from aldi.
Then drive up to coniston and dump them all along the shore line. It'll make it feel like summer's come early.
As mentioned above, Hardknott Pass is a must! Brilliant fun driving up it, and the road on the western side of it is amongst the most beautiful ribbons of tarmac in the country! Will be great fun in an MX5! I don't know what level of hill walking you're into, but Cat Bells is a nice walk.
Agreed. Barrow is a must see. Get a tetanus shot though.
Underrated Lakes bits within easy striking distance of coniston(and hence quieter)
Black Coombe
Dunnerdales/duddon valley (see stevestunts post)
Ennerdale (alright frickin miles away but ace)
Eskdale - the foresty bit with the dilapidated japanese garden - and go the ratty cos it's funny being on a tiny train (steer clear of the train station pub though in ravenglass, it's cack)
Eateries
Conishead priory (veggy so you'll have to smuggle a slice of ham in, but pleasant gardens too) soup and baguette £5!
The newish place between high sawrey and the ferry gastropub type gubbins but very good
Blacksmiths Broughton Mills
If you don't go to the ship inn and chip shop at greenodd I'll hunt you down and kill you
Greenodd - gateway to the Mosses road where I learnt to drive [FAST] and near where Andy Biketreks had his original rental business 🙂
Served my apprenticeship in Barrow - Wonder how much it's changed...........?
Greenodd - gateway to the Mosses road where I learnt to drive [FAST] and near where Andy Biketreks had his original rental business 🙂
Served my apprenticeship in Barrow - Wonder how much it's changed...........?
Steamers on Ullswater, Walk back to Glenridding from Howtown and have a pint in the Ratcher's.
Not long now, this weekend...... Anymore ideas ?