Lake District - Martindale Horseshoe
Landscape images - the Lake District
I thought it was about time I posted some landscape images. This post will be the first of a number from my favourite part of the country, probably my favourite place anywhere - the Lake District.
I live in the East Midlands and have a very busy job and family life, so I relish every opportunity I get to go to the Lakes. Recently this has involved two or three trips a year. I go walking with my best mate Duncan and also with a group of friends from work. None of these friends are photographers, and we primarily go to walk and get high into the hills, so I dispense with a tripod and limit my kit to my EOS 7D and 15-85 IS lens with a few graduated grey filters. All of the images you will see are hand held, and I often use my relative lack of fitness to my advantage, stopping to grab a few shots and catch my breath at the same time!
As well as taking photos, my interest is increasingly on getting up as many peaks as possible, plotting suitable roots and learning more about the area at the same time. Eventually I plan to turn my posts into proper walking routes, with maps and GPS info etc, like the ones I find other sites when I am looking for my next walk. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the images from these walks.
Martindale Horseshoe
There I something very special about a horseshoe walk - one that gets you high into the hills quite quickly, allowing the bulk of the walk to be at high level, arcs round in a big horseshoe shape, before going down hill again. You can often see much of the walk ahead of you, and look back and see where you have been, with the added advantage that with a short walk at the end you can finish back where you started (and usually where you have left the car).
The Martindale Horseshoe provides the perfect opportunity for isolated walking, in beautiful surroundings. At the southern edge of Ullswater, Martindale is not on any through transport route, and requires a drive down the eastern shore of the lake and down to near the end of a no through road. Beyond the end of the lake the road rises quite steeply, so the walk starts some way above lake level. There is a small parking area near St Martin's church (which incidentally is a good starting point for a quick romp up Hallin Fell) but we parked a short way further on by the side of the road.
Our route took us up the flanks of Steel Knotts (an alternative path takes you over the summit of this Wainwright peak) up to High Raise and Rampsgill Head. The day started cloudy, with the sun occasionally creating patterns on the hills across the valley and beyond.
The sun was only showing brief appearances as we reached Rampsgill Head and looked back down the valley. In both the following images you can also see Ullswater in the distance.
The route proceeds across The Knott and past Rest Dodd before you reach Angletarn Pikes, with fine views in all directions. The views across Ullswater and back towards Brothers Water are spectacular and we were fortunate that the sun decided to break through the clouds just as we arrived.
These first two images show the view towards Brothers Water, with the second showing the wider vista including Deepdale as well.
The view in the other direction, and as we walked towards Beda Fell, was equally spectacular.
I love the Lakes when the sun break through the clouds, lighting up the spectacular scenery in front of you.
As we approached Beda Fell the sun lit up Boredale as well.
So what had started out as a dull day was turning much better. In fact it was the perfect kind of day for photography, with a combination of sun and dark clouds playing patterns of light and shadow across the hills.
And as we walked up and over Beda Fell, the light was simply beautiful, with great views of Ullswater ahead of us almost all the way down. And we had plenty of time to enjoy the late afternoon sun, as we pointed out to Nigel (our time keeper) that his watch was still an hour ahead of British time, following a trip to France the week before!!
This was a thoroughly enjoyable walk and one I would highly recommend. For more details about these images, and many more (a total of 48 images from this walk) please go to the Martindale Horseshoe gallery here.