Cumbria Ways Day 16 - Haweswater to Staveley

Distance: 12.3 miles
Ascent: 570m
Weather: hot, cloudy, sunny spells

From the hotel we carried on along the road down to the bottom of Haweswater Reservoir. It was a warm day, very still with fluffy clouds - the forecast said a chance of heavy localised showers this afternoon,  we were hoping not to get caught in one.

The lakeside path is open between the Old Corpse Road and Mardale Head, with flowers, a little stone bridge and views over to Wood Howe and the Rigg, it was beautiful. There were flocks of greylag geese and we saw a cormorant. The car park was busy, with good reason.

We walked over Gatescarth Pass, a rocky green lane which climbs upwards steadily, and then zigzags steeply. I was glad that a dark cloud obscured the sun for a while, otherwise it would have been very hard going. A convoy of four 4x4s went up at the same time, not going much faster. It was sweaty. Very sweaty.

We stopped briefly at Brownhowe Bottom but it was midgy, so we continued on a while, there was a bit of a breeze at the top - at 580m the highest point on our whole walk.

We stopped part way down for elevenses, more like half twelveses. It drizzled a bit, just a few drops.

We had lunch in Sadgill, at the end of the public road by the bridge, which had pretty much become a car park. Some other 4x4'ers arrived and set up their deck chairs in the middle of the road, and started talking loudly about diff locks.

We took the lane up other side of the valley, which is a green lane that leads to Kentmere, but after the woods turned south onto a footpath that went up onto the moors to Green Quarter Fell. The sun came out and it was expletive hot.

We had a quick pitstop to wash hands and reapply suncream, and guzzle Ribena. The paths were grassy and very dry with odd pockets of bog and streams with sheep standing in them.

Over us, skylarks and meadow pippets were singing. A rocky bridleway led down off the hill, via Staveley Head Fell, and onto a road.

A couple of fingerposts pointed towards Elf Howe. Checking the map, it turns out there are three Elf Howes: Low Elfhowe, Middle Elfhowe and Elfhowe itself. We decided to follow the bridleway which went between low and middle, then go through Scroggs Farm above Scroggs Bridge (didn't see a scrogg) and then into Staveley.  We are staying at The Eagle and Child, and have tried a selection of their ales.