These are images taken to catalogue a journey from Ambleside, Cumbria, through the Kirkstone Pass and down into Patterdale and Glenridding as far as Aira Beck.
The unclassified road from
Ambleside to the top of the pass is called ‘The Struggle’. It is a steep, unrelenting climb. At the top it joins the A592 from Windermere
to Patterdale.
Just over a week after my
visit Storm Desmond hit and Patterdale and Glenridding were cut off. The road appeared to have been trashed by the
storm. A little
further along that road is Pooley Bridge – a pretty place, much
photographed. The bridge is no
longer. That last happened in the
18thC. I didn't go along Ullswater as
far as Pooley Bridge after I'd been photographing at Aira Force and Aira
Beck. I went back into Glenridding for
some lunch. After that I was watching
the light and my time.
Patterdale and Glenridding
were not only cut off after the storm, but days later they were still without
power, telephone landlines and mobile signals.
The army was looking after them.
Glenridding was hit again on the night of 9/10 December following more
heavy rain. The beck burst its banks and
boulders came down from the fells. More
damage was inflicted. There was a third flooding just in time for Christmas.
I had last been in the pass
almost 65 years ago (February 1951 – well before Wainwright published his definitive guides to walking in the fells).
Then I had walked from the Ambleside YH to the Patterdale YH, but not
along the road. I had climbed from Ambleside
onto the fells and followed the line of The Struggle and then the A-road. I descended from above Brothers Water into
Patterdale. If only we’d had the
lightweight kit then that fell-walkers enjoy today … …
Back to the present:
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| Looking back towards Ambleside |
 |
| A fellside detail |
 |
| A resident |
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| Clouds |
 |
| Top of The Struggle |
 |
| Kirkstone Pass Inn |
 |
| The high point |
 |
| Looking forward towards Patterdale |
 |
| Looking back to the pass from Brothers Water |
 |
| Cow Bridge, Brothers Water |
 |
| Another view back to the pass |
 |
| Brothers Water |
 |
| Cow Bridge |
 |
| Fell side |
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| Aira Beck |
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| Aira Force |
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| Aira Beck |
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| Across Ullswater |
