Sadly, our plan to climb Corvus was thwarted by a morning of intermittent heavy rain. We were bitterly disappointed but refused to mope around doing nothing, so after a quick look on Tripadvisor we went to Castlerigg Stone Circle, which was a twenty minute drive from our camping spot in the Borrowdale valley.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

Set against a 360 degree backdrop of rolling, green mountains dappled by the shadows of clouds, this Neolithic monument was very atmospheric. The perfect circle, apparently aligned with the sun and stars, was made up of 38 stones of varying heights between 2ft and 8ft, with a clear entrance marked by two huge stones and a rectangle of standing stones within. I’m intrigued by stone circles as their ancient significance remains unknown; I read that Castlerigg could have been a religious site, trading centre or other meeting place, but there’s been little excavation work carried out there and nobody’s really sure.

Having tried and failed to fathom the mystery of the circle, we traipsed back to the van and decided to head east across the north of the national park towards Helvellyn, which we planned to climb the next day. With no real plans, we pootled along and stopped in the Ullswater valley for a walk near Aira Force, a National Trust managed waterfall.

• 

• 

Aira Force

We followed a well-trodden footpath down from the car park and indulged in a short circular walk which followed both banks of the rocky, babbling Aira Beck, tucked away in an impossibly green woodland. It would have been idyllic if it weren’t so busy, with people congregating and faffing on the bridges and at the edges of the water. Furious, rushing masses of white water crashed down and were pacified by the calm river below, which carved its way through the land until reaching the next drop and morphing back into an unstoppable fall.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Glenridding

Impressed by the beauty of the spot but keen to get away from people, we went back to the van and drove into Glenridding, where we would begin our hike the next day. We tucked away in the far corner of the car park, which turned out to be a great overnight spot as it was discrete and right next to a dead end grassy bit of land ending in a river. It was only mid-afternoon and having had our climbing plans cancelled we felt a little lost, so we grabbed some supplies from the shop and had a drink at a picnic table in the middle of the village.

Glenridding is an attractive but busy place situated on the north eastern side of the Lake District, tucked between the south western end of Ullswater and the high sides of the hills, pikes and fells to the west. It has a small handful of shops all clustered into a small area, and the large car park (which has public toilets, an information centre and a large picnic area) is at the heart of the village, by the Ulls Water river.

We thought it rude not to try the pubbiest-looking pub in town, especially as it was called the Traveller’s Rest, up one of the residential streets at the west end of the village. We sat outside overlooking Glenridding and the high hills on the other side of the valley, listening to the bleating of the sheep in the adjacent field and enjoying our first, second and third pints. Before we knew it, we’d been there a couple of hours and I was drunk. We ate in the cosy pub, then headed down the hill to the Inn on the Lake, where we had one before Ryan guided me back to the van.

NB: final paragraph was pieced together from Ryan’s account and snippets of memory. Alcohol-related omissions were necessary.