Thursday 2 April 2026 - Carrock Fell

Sue and I had originally planned a day in the Lake District during our stay at Whinfell, but the weather forecast when we left home had obliterated any such idea, so very little walking gear was taken. However, given the opportunity for a walk on an unexpectedly fine day, we donned trail shoes and t-shirts and headed off to Carrock Beck, where half a dozen or so cars meant that we were not alone on the hill.

Carrock Fell, pictured above from near the start of the walk, is one of 214 'Wainwrights' - the hills described in Alfred Wainwright's pictorial walking guides. I'd never ticked these off in the past, but during last year I scoured my old diaries and entered details on a spreadsheet, to discover that there were about 60 'Wainwrights' that I'd not been up. Thus the germ of a project that would be easier than the 100+ Munro summits that I need to climb to achieve a second round of those summits.

The slow plod up to the main path was a bit squelchy, but my feet stayed dry in the sturdy Keen Targhee 3 shoes. Sue's Saloman shoes leaked, and she soon sped far ahead, for a long wait on the summit.

Looking south to Bannerdale Crags and Blencathra

This is the site of an Iron Age hillfort (see details at the foot of this posting), and the 663 metre summit of Carrock Fell is certainly a fine viewpoint.

It was a lovely sunny day, but a cool breeze provided encouragement to keep going. We left a large group on the summit of Carrock Fell and headed off over slightly boggy ground (not as bad as expected) to reach the minor summits of Round Knott and Miton Hill.

Round Knott

Looking back to Carrock Fell from Round Knott

Above and below: by the cairn that marks the summit of Miton Hill

After continuing over the rocky ramparts of Round Knott, and then to the small cairn at the top of Miton Hill, we headed down to the col at Red Gate and a turn right onto a good track to Carrock Beck.

The gentle descent to Carrock Beck

On reaching Carrock Beck, a spring in our steps saw us easily across the torrent.

The path turned into a track and led all the way down to the minor road where the car was parked. There were welcome warnings of dire consequences for anyone bold enough to try driving up the Caldbeck Common road on which we had just descended.

Any concerns about re-crossing the beck to reach the car were soon dismissed, though without the footbridge we would certainly have got wet feet in the ford.

Looking down, the river has certainly picked up pace from where we crossed easily higher up the valley.

Back at the car, with our route up to the summit of Carrock Fell in clear view

Here's our route - 7.3km with 400 metres ascent, taking around 3 hours, described in part below.

We could have continued over High Pike, another 'Wainwright', but we'd been there before and we were needed back at base to help cook a meal for 10 people. (That went well.)

30 March to 3 April 2026 - A Visit to Center Parcs Whinfell

This year's visit, organised by my daughter to coincide with building work and a new kitchen at her house, was to Whinfell, where we were blessed with good weather. Jacob and his friend Seb marauded about on their mountain bikes whilst Jess and Grace (aka Gerty) just enjoyed the freedom to roam around the holiday village.

Badger Wood number 58 was our home for the duration of the trip, just a few minutes walk from the village square and pool.
 

After being cooped up in Kate's car, the kids were happy to make their way to the village square.

The staff at the boating lake clearly have time on their hands enabling them to play in the sand.

We spent some time in the 'Entertainment Hive'. The interactive darts games were most enjoyable, with technology working very well as regards scoring etc.

Seb got the first trophy but he later disgraced himself during a family quiz where a few howlers resulted in a disappointing result of 11th out of the 27 teams. We would probably have won if I hadn't had to leave half way through to cook tea!

Anyway, back to the darts, and a reversal of fortunes for me and Seb.

The control panel was firmly in the hands of Jess, who had to score zero points for anyone who missed the board. (It's a good job she's good at maths!)

Here's a surprised Gerty when she nearly scored a 180 that eluded the rest of us.

After the darts, the 'Bat Cage' was a little disappointing as it was quite hard to return the balls that flew out of the end wall. There were different modes for tennis (the easiest to hit), cricket (easy to hit against the side walls, but getting the end wall was hard), and baseball. Good fun though.

So Sue won that, but Kate thrashed us all at pool. She may do even better next time if her threat to buy a pool table for her revamped lounge comes to fruition.

There was an 'Arena' where a selection of games had the players dashing around and being knocked about by an over-enthusiastic 14 year old.

 

There were fairly frequent 10 minute walks beteeen number 58 and the village centre through lovely tree lined pathways. adorned with little sculptures from place to place.

Cowslips

The swimming pool includes a slide that takes you out of the main 'bubble'.

Here's the quiz team that performed so miserably after I had left to do the cooking.

And here's a result of some of the cooking. The boys claim to be allergic to mushrooms. They aren't, but they refuse to eat anything which they think has mushrooms in it. Haha, I chopped them up so small that they were indistinguishable from the meat...

Some of Kate's friends and their children came on Thursday on a day pass, so Sue and I took advantage of some sunny weather to climb nearby Carrock Fell. There is a separate diary entry here for that.

Before leaving on Friday, all except Kate (the maximum number of players was six) enjoyed a game of Puttify, a sort of electronic putting game suitable for the whole family, however young. It was very well designed and good fun. The Entertainment Hive certainly works very well so far as the electronics is concerned.

Whilst the others went for a final swim, I took a walk in the sunshine in the woods. Turning on the 'Merlin' app on my phone, I was surprised to find myself in the presence of bird song from up to 21 different species. They are listed below, with three doubtful sounds marked with a red dot that indicates they would not normally be expected here. I was surprised as to the lack of woodpeckers, though we did hear them earlier in the week, and some of our group spotted some of the elusive red squirrels that have their homes in the holiday village. A visit to the Bird Hide was completely futile - they were all hiding, despite feeding stations.

So that's it at Center Parcs for this year. A good time was had by all.

My diary entry for last year's visit is here.