Route: leaving the car at the NT car park (free to members and almost empty at 11am, two days before Christmas) and running past the Bridge Hotel to the lake and then via the newly reinstated bridge to the path on the far, western, side of the lake. Along this to the head of the lake and then back first on the road and then, for the first time, on the newly re-engineered path on the eastern shore. Taking the higher path doubling back to cross over, rather than through, the tunnel and then back to the pub. Then, at a walk and gifted with rum butter for Christmas pudding, back to the car.
Conditions: a dry spell in an unpromising, cloudy day.
Pub: the Bridge Hotel, Buttermere, for Tractor Brewery Mowdy Pale Ale.
