Allen Crags & Glaramara

The following morning after settling in, the group ( of mixed walking ability ) were all asked which walk we would like to do from a choice of 3 grades. As it was a good day, I chose the harder one of the three which was the mountain that we could see from the front door... Glaramara.
The above view of Glaramara shows the curving descent that we took on a rounded ridge at the end of the day.

I had done this route twice before, once in each direction and it is unfortunate to say that my favourite direction was the clockwise route! The route starts at the top of the map and follows the anti-clockwise direction taking a path to avoid the busy road to Seathwaite. The D-tour at the south end was a lunch break at Sprinkling Tarn. The final climb to Allen Crags, across the tops to Glaramara and down the curving descending rounded ridge back to the accommodation.

We set off along the Borrowdale road to the start of the path with the walk leader striding ahead on the right hand side of the road.

This part of the route is known as the Allerdale ramble which is a long distance north / south Lake District walking route.

Soon we approached Seathwaite ( officially the wettest place in England ), the starting point for many high level walks in this area.

Seathwaite Farm

Door to the mountains !

After a last toilet stop here, it was time to step out into the open country ...

( Allen Crags on the left with our route up Grains Gill valley to the right of it. Seathwaite fell on the right)

Taylorgill Force to the right of Seathwaite Fell

Breaktime at Stockley bridge where the path splits around Seathwaite Fell

The stream just beyond the bridge looking up towards Allen Crags

Grains Gill is a bit of a pull and it lasts for the best part of 90 minutes.

After lunch at Sprinkling Tarn, this is the view at the bottom of the map making the final ascent to Allen Crags.....

.... with the view from the top looking towards Derwentwater, Keswick and The Skiddaw mountain range.

From the summit of Allen Crags, we could see the tarn where we stopped for lunch with a similar view to this of Great Gable ( A mountain I described in an earlier blog last summer ).

As Allen Crags was the high point of the day & indeed the weekend  (2575 ft / 785m ) it was time for some of the group to take some photos of the memorable occasion.

mountain tarn and Langdale Pikes in background

The next section of the walk between the two summits is reasonably demanding as Glaramara has several lower summits with the main one being the last one before dropping down the mountain. A few of the group found this section quite unexpectedly tough. On the north side of Glaramara is a 20 foot easy rock scramble but the walk leader opted to avoid this on descent ... hence the dog leg on the above map near the summit.

Taking a break below the summit watching those on the normal ascent route

The main reason for opting to do the walk in this direction is the view on the descent towards Derwentwater again but a lot of the group were so tired from climbing all of Glaramara's false summits that they were just glad to see our accommodation in the centre base of the above photo. So I'll finish with one of someone who did appreciate it ....

"Wow, look at that great view" !!

( I promise a bit more variety in the next walk which involves a boat trip )