Pandemic Peregrinations: Whitbarrow, Cumbria, Spring
I’ve often gazed longingly at Whitbarrow Scar from afar.
Finally we decided to clamber around it.
Whitbarrow (215m/705ft) is a limestone hill, much like its neighbour Scout Scar, with whom I’m much more familiar with. Whitbarrow is further west of Scout Scar across the Lyth Valley, but covers a much larger area. When viewed from the A590 south of the fell, Whitbarrow presents some sheer and imposing cliff faces that I instantly fell in love the first time I saw them. I resolved to one day wander around the contours of Whitbarrow. Today was that day.
Whitbarrow is definitely not as easy to access as Scout Scar. Whereas Scout Scar can be reached with ease from the tiny car park near its northern edge (or walked to directly from Kendal), Whitbarrow has no official car park nearby and is surrounded only by tiny villages and hamlets. We elected to park in one of the laybys off the A5074, then walk into the village of The Row to find the footpaths up onto Whitbarrow.
We spent a good 2-3 hours around Whitbarrow and quickly got the distinct impression that this was a fell that we could return to time and time again, and still not see all of that. The fell is quite vast and varied. Its western flank drops down steeply to the valley floor at Whitbarrow Scar, but does so more smoothly compared to Scout Scar’s vertical cliffs. The eastern part of Whitbarrow is a protected Nature Reserve, featuring limestone shelves, limestone pavements full of clints and grikes, and lots of woodland.
We managed to summit the fell at Lord’s Seat and made a small loop back towards The Row. There is still a lot to more explore of Whitbarrow, and I look forward to returning again.
All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Samyang 35mm f/1.2, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and a converted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Developed using RNI’s Kodachrome film profiles.
As we started to ascend out of The Row, the views across the Lyth Valley towards the Far Eastern Lake District fells quickly opened up. We were blessed with another lovely day of weather.
There is considerably more woodland on and around Whitbarrow compared to Scout Scar.
From the woodland near The Row known as the Township Plantation, we branched off west towards the cliffs of Whitbarrow Scar. We wanted to see what the views towards the Lake District fells were like.
The way forward, with some runners up ahead. The sky was a lot more dramatic today, but still thankfully dry.
Now that’s a view. The Langdale Pikes towards the right, Wetherlam and the Coniston fells towards the left. Dappled light everywhere. Glorious scenes.
The cliffs north of Whitbarrow Scar with the Eastern Lake District fells in the distance.
Just amazing views of the Kentmere and Longsleddale fells.
Near Bell Rake the land drops away sharply, exposing these silver birch to the consistent westerly winds.
One of many glacial erratics around Whitbarrow, physical testament to the fell’s ice age history.
After summiting at Lord’s Seat we followed the “spine” south from the summit, taking in the views towards Morecambe Bay along the way.
Getting closer to the precipitous drop of Whitbarrow Scar.
A wall prevents you from getting near the edge, lest you tumble towards the valley floor. Wind-blasted trees give an indication of what the conditions can be like on the fell.
More wind-blasted silver birch with moody skies.
Just one example of the almost impossibly perfect wall-like structure of the limestone pavements found near the Whitbarrow Nature Reserve.
Whitbarrow Nature Reserve is a limestone woodland, featuring all manner of flora that survives in the acidic soil conditions and changeable weather.
My ultra-wide 9mm lens had some fun following various tree trunks and branches for more unusual compositions.
We found this weird tree that appeared to have a separate tentacle-like trunk growing out of it. I got close and low with my 9mm lens to follow the line of this trunk.
A rather unusual tree, to my experience; the trunk is almost tendon-like in its structure. Google thinks this is Hesperocyparis macrocarpa, a Monterey cypress tree.
The way back to The Row through the Township Plantation. We’ll be back, Whitbarrow…