Warriners Wood, Lake District, Spring
A brighter weekend means a long Sunday morning above Kendal.
A brighter weekend means a long Sunday morning above Kendal.
We’ve been to Warriners Wood many times before, after we found it during the winter of 2021. As of spring this year it appears to have survived the 2021/2022 storm season rather well, and some of my favourite trees are still standing strong.
A “Warriner” is an old Scottish/English term for a gamekeeper—that is, someone who’s job is to manage game in a park. I assume this woodland was once part of a gamekeeper’s land. Saying that, Warriner has also since become a fairly popular surname. Who knows?
Even in early April we chanced upon what we think are bluebells. Already. Before the wild garlic has flowered. Crazy.
Photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Fujinon 23mm f/2.0, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Images made 80% in-camera using the Astia film simulation, finished off in Lightroom and Affinity Photo.
Heading up Brigsteer Road, someone’s now erected an impressive wicker sculpture of a deer (I think?).
Following Brigsteer Road past our usual route up the back of Scout Scar. This farm will be full of lambs now, I imagine.
Warriner’s Wood is up to the left. The sun finally comes out to play.
How lush this will all look when the trees are all in leaf.
As the road starts winding ahead, a small opening in the drystone wall to our left gives us access down the slope to Warriner’s Wood.
Nowt in the way of daffodils in Warriner’s Wood, but the leaves of bluebells are plentiful. This place will host a glorious carpet of them in a month’s time.
My favourite tree in Warriner’s Wood. Or rather, a collection of trees sharing the same root system. I elected to attach my 9mm ultra-wide lens and make a 6-shot vertorama of this tree, from bottom to top. Pretty happy with how it came out!
Lisabet in her element, whilst also beautifully blending in with palette of the scenery.
A trio of trees in this pasture field.
Following the hedgerow back down the slopes of Helsington Laithes, with the Helm serving as a local beacon in the distance.
A Cumbrian pastoral scene.
This gorgeous cottage at the bottom of Helsington Laithes is always worth a photo or two.
I wonder how old it is…
The road back to Kendal, lined with the last of this season’s daffodils.
Pandemic Peregrinations: Helsington Barrows, Cumbria, Winter
It’s amazing the difference 24-hours can make.
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.