Yesterday, after visiting the NCT nearly-new sale in Cockermouth, Penny and I headed to Whinlatter to find a suitable walk. This area has seven Wainwrights, five in or around Whinlatter Forest and two separate smaller fells on the north-western side. Lord’s Seat is the highest but also has a fairly gentle climb from Whinlatter Pass. The forest tracks made climbing fairly easy (even with a large bump) and we were surprised that even the smaller paths were well maintained. Once out of the trees towards the top we had views in most directions, including to Grisedale Pike, Derwent Water, Keswick, Skiddaw, Bassenthwaite and the sea.

We had our lunch just off the top and I left Penny so that I could tick Broom Fell about 1km away. It was a fairly unremarkable hill except for the cairn which was significantly taller than me.

After I returned to Lord’s Seat we descended towards Barf. This craggy top towers above the A66 overlooking Basenthwaite Lake. It is a good viewpoint across to Skiddaw. From Barf we dropped back into Whinlatter Forest and followed a series of tracks back to the main car park. We had been out for around three hours and climbed nearly 400m, an impressive achievement for Penny, 8 months pregnant!

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• Skiddaw
• Whinlatter Blue