THE VALLEYS
Every Lakeland valley is a hillwalking paradise, but which one is your favourite? And how do you even start comparing them? To help you do just that, we’ve taken the slightly unorthadox step of matching our favourites with the five members of all-conquering 1990s girl group The Spice Girls...
GREAT LANGDALE
For super active types, this is the SPORTY one. A quick run in off the motorway (or a bus service out of Ambleside), and a steep but shortish bit of uphill, leads to the superb scrambling on the Langdale Pikes. That’s Jack’s Rake, the toughest and most scary of the walker-level routes. There’s also a generous handful of less familiar routes, from Stickle Gill to the spurlines of Harrison Stickle itself. There’s the airy walk that’s the Climbers’ Traverse to the Great Slab, and the rocky moments on Crinkle Crags.
Then for climbers there’s the stunning Gimmer Crag, plus the fabulous mountain route of Bowfell Buttress. Langdale is grand for valley level walks as well.
But it’s the quick access to the fingers-andfeet work that (just like Spice Girl Mel C) hits the real high note.
LANGSTRATH
For the somewhat withdrawn and POSH one, the one with the touch of class, it has to be Langstrath – the long, empty glen at
Borrowdale’s back-left corner. Langstrath hits the long drawn-out lower notes by way of 6km of quiet wandering below the craggy slopes. It wears its full-length slinky dress in the immaculate styling of the Langstrath Beck, complete with greeny-blue pools and little waterfalls. It even markets its own perfume, scented with heather and a hint of peat. However Langstrathdale hasn’t, so far, married any footballers.
ENNERDALE
Neither glamorous blonde nor reassuring brunette. The folks who go for GINGER are looking for something a little bit different. And this means Ennerdale, the long one with the trees. From the car park alongside Ennerdale Water, you head in through former plantations now gradually transforming into wildwood. It’s 8km of gentle trackway or a treeroot path to the lonely, car-free hostel at Black Sail Hut. And if you need further gingering up, there’s the grim and gothic ascent of Pillar by way of Robinson’s Cairn.
ESKDALE
The one that wears its hair in bunches
– that’s Eskdale, aka BABY. All of us who cherish our inner baby will love the miniature Ravenglass Railway that takes us up the glen, and maybe also the miniature Muncaster Fell that’s the alternative way back out again. There’s the River Esk with its miles of oakwood paths and its skippy-hoppy stepping stones. There’s the jungly Stanley Gill (no lions and tigers, sadly) leading to the exciting Dalegarth Falls. Just rein in that inner child at the top, where there’s a diving board rock edge to look down over.
WASDALE
And finally – the SCARY one. Wasdale is where the really big hills crowd in around the end of the glen. Great Gable, with its traverse path and the climbing crags above it. Scafell and Scafell Pike, divided by the narrow scree edge of Mickledore. From there, it’s the gloomy chasm of Lord’s Rake if you’re accepting the challenge of Scafell itself. There’s Yewbarrow, with its own imposing Great Door in the rocky gully to its southwest end, and a high, airy scramble called Stirrup Crag at its northern corner. And there’s the grim boulderfield of Wast Water’s lakeside path.
“THE LAKE COUNTRY IS A GLORIOUS REGION, OF WHICH I HAD ONLY SEEN THE SIMILITUDE IN DREAMS” CHARLOTTE BRONTE
The Herdwick sheep (brown wool, chunky legs) are Lakeland’s distinctive breed. It’s thought they arrived in the longships of the Norse invaders, who also gave Lakeland many of its placenames.