A 7km walk in unpromising weather conditions in the middle of Christmas Day.Route: from the cottage walking up Tenter Lane and along the Whinlatter Pass road to the start of the walk to Spout Force under newly felled trees up the hillside to the left. Returning to the footbridge and following the re-engineered path steeply uphill to the Spout Force car park. Before joining the road, taking an initially attractive footpath left but finding this quickly degenerating into the very muddy tracks of some Forestry Commission behemoth. Sadly, a swift exit via a gate onto the road being blocked by brambles continuing through lesser brambles sometimes uphill to the left before eventually descending to more muddy caterpillar tracks and eventually descending to a gap in the wall opposite the road turn-off to Scales. Following this, slightly uphill and then down in now driving wind and rain and thus back to the cottage.
Conditions: initially dry, contra the forecast, but later heavy rain driven by wind.
Pub? Bottled Robinsons Ginger Tom and canned Lervig No Worries at the cottage.
