Distance: 11 miles
Ascent: about 800m but the fitbit readings were wappy, possibly due to the wind
Weather: sunshine and clouds, very windy
Dunnock, ravens, gruffalo, red grouse, robins.
We parked at the visitor centre at Winlatter Forest and headed out through Thornthwaite Forest. Our first top of the day was Tarbarrell Foss, a heathery clearing by a fence with views, where we got a taster of how windy it was out from the shelter of the trees.
We followed a lower path and then turned right up towards Seat How, where there were great views of Keswick in the valley. Crossing Beckstones Gill, we left the forest and were out onto the moorland and into the wind.
From Barf, Lord's Seat and Broom Fell we were walking almost into the wind, making it hard to walk and causing my hood to make an annoying thrumming noise.
We had lunch at a sheltered spot near the trees at Widow Hause, then made a loop out to Grey Stones and back.
It was marginally better walking with the wind behind us, but still hard going, in some places it was almost impossible to walk at all, never mind in a straight line.
We avoided the top of Lord's Seat by following a trod, which didn't really go in the right direction so we cut across through the heather (complete with red grouse) until we joined up with the footpath.
We retraced the path back to the visitor centre, grateful to be out of the wind and that it had been dry.
