Cunswick Fell, Lake District, Summer
Sometimes, as an Englishman, you just need to have a proper English Countryside experience.
For one reason or another, I’ve not been feeling 100% mentally and emotionally this week. Saturday arrived as a glorious summer’s day. We knew the Lake District would be absolutely heaving with people. Instead, we opted for a local 9km walk around the Cunswick Fell area.
It was just the tonic. The sun was warm, but a gentle cool breeze made things comfortable. The fields and meadows were bursting with tall grasses and wildflowers. The atmosphere was crisp and the distant fells were clear as a bell. One of the those hikes where you can’t take a bad photo and makes you feel truly grateful.
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. Images were 80% made in-camera using a customised Velvia film simulation, with minor edits afterwards in Lightroom and Affinity Photo.
After leaving the Cumbria Wildlife Trust HQ, where we parked, we took the trail off the road and through the fields. Immediately, scenes like this greeted us. Just pure bucolic perfection.
Buttercups everywhere, and the Kentmere fells so clear you could almost reach out and touch them.
Lisabet snapping as happily as I was.
Near Halhead Hall Farm, a trail through the woods underneath Cunswick Fell takes you 60 m up towards the fell.
Up on Cunswick Fell, the views soon start to open up. Here is the view looking east towards the Howgills.
The Lake District fells across the Lyth Valley from Cunswick Fell. It doesn’t get a lot better than this.
We scanned around the western shoulder of Cunswick Fell, looking for the trail down Scar Wood towards Cunswick Tarn.
This is the limestone woods of Scar Wood, underneath Cunswick Scar. It takes you down to the Lyth Valley.
The trail then leads through the edge of Ash Spring Wood, filled with wild garlic.
And then you pop out of Ash Spring Wood to be greeted with endless fields of tall grass and the Coniston Fells.
Over the wall near us, this gorgeous Holstein Friesian was inching closer, being as inquisitive as cows are.
The way to Cunswick Hall, which is where we join the ancient country road Gamblesmire Lane back towards Cunswick Fell.
Happy cows, basking in the sun.
Just ridiculous views, no matter which way you look.
Looking back down Gamblesmire Lane, the Lake District fells looking crisp as ever even with the extra cloud cover.
A Hawthorn-lined track that leads back to the summit of Cunswick Fell.
My lovely little Lisabet, leading the way back down the woods towards our car.
Just one of those perfect English countryside summer days.