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Wednesday 4th August 2004
Start point: Newby Bridge (SD
367 864)
Finsthwaite Heights
(OF
Walk - no definite summit)
from Newby Bridge
Route Map
Weather: Rain.
A short walk on this wet morning to
Finsthwaite and High Dam from Newby Bridge. This walk follows
Wainwright's Finsthwaite Heights chapter in his book 'The Outlying Fells
of Lakeland', page 74.
'Everywhere the surroundings are
delightful. But this is not fellwalking' - AW
There are spaces for parking on the
Rusland road adjacent to the River Leven and The Lakeside and
Haverthwaite (L&H) Railway line.
Newby Bridge.
Weir on the River Leven.
I tried to follow the Wainwright description as
closely as possible but things have changed over the last 30 years. I
crossed over the L&H bridge and then immediately left down a narrow lane
which leads top private houses. The path is signposted to the right from
this lane and climbs steeply upwards with stone steps along the way to
help. I followed the path to a branch to the right which led to the only
high viewpoint of the walk on Summer House Knott - no views today
though. Then it was back to the main path and up to the right to
Finsthwaite Tower almost hidden by dense foliage. This is a lovely
woodland walk, whatever the weather.
Finsthwaite Tower - 'Erected to honour the officers,
seamen and marines of the Royal Navy whose matchless conduct and
irresistible valour decisively defeated the fleets of France, Spain and
Holland and preserved and protected liberty and commerce 1799'. It's a
pity it has now fallen into disrepair.
From the tower, I followed the obvious path which
deviates from the Wainwright route and in fact ended up coming into
Finsthwaite the way he describes for the return leg. Not to worry, only
a field full of bulls to contend with once free from the woods!
Finsthwaite from the path to Great Knott Wood.
Finsthwaite Church.
The off-license in Finsthwaite mentioned by Wainwright
has long gone but the signposted path is still there and indeed it seems
to go through the gardens of private dwellings. There is no danger of
getting lost on this route - just follow the painted white arrows!
Where am I?
Once through the gate and over the bridge, the path
from the new-ish car park to High Dam is unmissable. As Wainwright said
of High Dam 'it is a much nicer place than the over-populated Tarn
Hows'.
Low Dam.
High Dam.
I then crossed the High Dam Wall for a circuit of Low
Dam before another deviation from Wainwright's route - rather than
retuning by the same path I came up, it was down to the car park and
back along the road to Finsthwaite.
High Dam outflow, left and the 3D map of the area on
the right
explains that High Dam was constructed to turn the water wheels at Stott
Park Bobbin Mill, the bobbins being used in the cotton mills in
Lancashire. The map itself is on top of a large wooden bobbin.
From Finsthwaite Church again, it was back across the
two open fields (past the bulls again) and then a climb to below
Finsthwaite tower and then a sharp descent to the road near Lakeside and
an easy walk along the path back to Newby Bridge.
Lakeside from Landing How, Gummer's How is lost in the
mist behind.
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Previous Walk 2nd August 2004
Fairfield Horseshoe
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Lank Rigg
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