Pandemic Peregrinations: Helsington Barrows, Cumbria, Winter
It’s amazing the difference 24-hours can make.
Yesterday we were hiking through mist and fog with a landscape covered in frost and snow.
Today a lot of the frost has melted, the sun was out, and the atmosphere was crystal clear.
So this time we did one of our favourite local hikes. From the front door, up Captain French Lane and onto Brigsteer Road, then follow the road up towards Helsington Barrows. Here we came off the road to explore a new discovery of ours, Warriner’s Wood. We’ve mentally bookmarked this area for spring and summer, but we thought we’d have a wander through the woods now. It were really quite pretty.
Popping back out of the woods we crossed the road onto Helsington Barrows and began the long ascent up to Scout Scar. And it was at the summit that we were simply floored by the spectacle of the Lake District fells covered in snow. Not only were they beautifully coated in the white stuff, but the atmosphere was so crystal clear you felt you could reach out and touch the fells. Incredible.
I hope you manage to get a sense of the awe and wonder we experienced through these photos.
All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using both my Samyang 35mm f/1.2 and Laowa 9mm f/2.8 lenses. Developed using one of RNI’s Kodachrome film profiles.
Berries have been replaced with flowers made of ice.
The road through Warriner’s Woods. You can see the stile on the left; this is the way into the woods on foot.
Had to snap this moss-covered tree with some sort of vine crawling up it.
Another interesting sight. Is it five separate trees, sharing the same root system? Or one tree that’s split into five? I couldn’t say, but I know I’ve never seen owt like it. Here’s a photo of me climbing into the bowl of the trees.
Same tree, different angle.
Still some nice pops of colour about in Warriner’s Wood.
Out of the woods we cross the road and up onto Helsington Barrows, following the trail up to Scout Scar.
The views open up the higher we climb. Looking back at the way we came, I frame this shot of Lisabet with the wonderful snow-covered shapes of the Howgills in the distance.
This was the view that made both me and Lisabet cuss in awe. Probably the clearest I’ve ever seen the Lake District fells from Scout Scar.
Life… finds a way.
Once we arrived at the cairn we followed the edge of Scout Scar northwards towards Hodgson’s Leap, snapping happily along the way.
I whipped out my 9mm ultra-wide lens for some vast and expansive compositions.
Probably my favourite shot from the day: a little tree growing out of the limestone crags of Scout Scar, still with some frosting on its branches.
Near Hodgson’s Leap with a sheer drop down to the Lyth Valley below.
Looking back the way we came. The atmosphere was so clear we could see all the way out to Morecambe Bay, which seemed to be experiencing a more overcast day.
Heading back into Kendal, down my favourite road: Beast Banks.
If I’ve got my 9mm ultra-wide lens with me I rarely resist a composition of Kendal town hall.