8 December 2017

11km Loughrigg Circuit

An 11 km run on a cold, frosty but sunny winter day.

Route: from the upper Ambleside car park, running 200m on the road towards Grasmere, turning left down a side road to find a path through Rothay Park to cross the River Rothay and turn right onto the Under Loughrigg road. Turning left, before the road re-crosses the river, onto a rising road then shady track to reach views of Rydal Water. Picking the upper, increasingly stony, path, eventually rising to reach the caves and then keeping to higher paths to reach the start of Loughrigg Terrace. Along this and then the higher track, at the end, through trees to reach the summit of Red Bank. Descending, left, to reach a track round the north of Loughrigg Tarn. Part way along taking a footpath on the left across fields to meet a stony walled track rising and turning to circumnavigate the hillside rising to reach a spur and following a grassy path, right, to reach Lily Tarn. Descending on a grassy, muddy path to reach the main track over Loughrigg and thence back over the bridge over the Rothay and back to the start.

Conditions: a cold sunny day though shadowed for the first half of the run. Some ice under foot but not as much as I feared.

Pub: Tweedies Bar, Grasmere for Brew York Brew York and Sadler's Hop Bomb and lunch.