After our luck with the weather when we climbed Helvellyn, the forecast took a bit of a nosedive the following day. With the weather set to veer between dry and raining, we decided to stick to a lower level walk with a visit to the Bowder Stone, and to nip up to King’s Howe for good measure while we were there. What we thought would be an easy, low level walk actually turned out to be a bit of a trek – we both ended up wishing we’d done a Wainwright instead!
We followed a route that we found on the OS maps app, and parked in the National Trust Bowder Stone car park (free for members). At just two and a half miles, we were expecting to be round and back in the car after an hour and a half tops – it actually took us two and a half hours! Setting off in the opposite direction to the Bowder Stone, we spent a while fighting our way through sopping wet, neck high ferns (which ended up being a theme throughout the walk), before entering a small wood where, at least, the ferns temporarily abated.
However, once the ferns disappeared, we immediately picked up a horribly steep path and spent what felt like an hour (but probably wasn’t quite that long) dragging ourselves up a hill. With the threat of rain overhead it was ridiculously humid and we were both sweating by the time we got to the top! Once we were out of the woods (literally) it was another short climb to get to the summit of King’s Howe.
King’s Howe is a nice little hill, clad in heather and with good views of Derwentwater. We didn’t hang around on the top as the wind had picked up and we were both wet through after walking through the ferns. We started to descend, with more good views over the valley. Keep your eyes peeled as there are lots of interconnecting paths around here and we nearly went wrong once or twice.
It was literally and metaphorically ‘all downhill from here’, with no more climbing but what felt like at least another mile of soaking wet ferns to battle through. I have to say by the time we finally reached the Bowder Stone I’d well and truly had enough and wasn’t really bothered about having a good look at the stone! To give you an idea of how wet my feet were, when we got back to the car I took my boots off, turned them upside down and water literally poured out. And don’t get me started on how wet my socks were!
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. There are a few woodland sections where you could let your dog off, but the rest of the walk is on open fell side where you might come across sheep. There’s also a short section along a busy road (if you cross to the other side, there’s a very narrow pavement), which you have to cross a stile to get to. We managed to squeeze both dogs under a gap in the fence, but if you’ve got a dog bigger than a 30kg Labrador it might be a tight fit. We also found lots of ticks on our dogs after this walk (probably due to the fern ploughing) so make sure you’ve got a tick hook handy.
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