Grizedale Forest, Lake District, Spring
Welcome to Grizedale Forest.
After a morning of joint optician appointments, the day was looking fine and ripe for some hiking. Where would we go? Lisabet suggested Grizedale Forest, which I immediately leapt on. She’s never been to the area, and the last I visited was so long ago that I cannot summon any memories of the place.
Grizedale Forest can be found south of the famous Lakeland village of Hawkshead, in between the lakes of Windermere and Coniston Water. If you’re curious about the name it originates from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. “Grize” comes the Old Norse gris, meaning a “boar” or “pig”, and “dale”—from the Old Norse dalr—means “valley”, giving us “valley of the pigs”. The area stretches over 24 km² and features a number of trails for walkers and cyclists, small tarns and fells, and a fully-featured visitor centre.
We parked some distance away at Moor Top, hiked into Grizedale village, and hopped onto the Carron Crag Trail, with the aim of reaching the summit of Carron Crag at 314 m (1,030 ft).
The hike vastly exceeded our expectations and the views from the summit of Carron Crag were outstanding. The Coniston fells looked incredible and we could even make out a highly localised hailstorm falling over Seat Sandal!
Another crackin’ day.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Samyang 35mm f/1.2, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Developed using RNI’s Kodachrome film profiles.