Sunday 10th February 2019 - Cartmel, South Lakes

This month our walks are based on Cartmel.  The coach will leave school as usual at 8.00 am prompt and travel to Forton Services for a toilet and boot stop. The coach will continue to the Gilpin Inn where the A walk starts.  The other walks start in Cartmel.   Boots are essential on all walks. 

This year’s Hotpot will be at The Gilpin Bridge Inn, nr Kendal.  The menu options are overleaf.   The departure time from Cartmel will be announced on the coach. Assuming that all parties have returned, meals will be served from around 17.00 hours.  We will depart after the hot pot meal at approximately 6.30pm arriving back in Formby about 8.30pm.  

The cost of travel will be £14.00 for members, £17.00 for non-members and £5.00 for Leaders, children and students in full time education. The cost of the meal will be £11 per person for two courses (starter and main or main and dessert).   Please provide payment via 2 separate cheques (or two separate electronic transfers) one for the walk and one for the meal.  Please make your cheques payable to Range Walking Club and ensure they are signed as it is inconvenient for the Treasurer to chase up such omissions.

Please book by email and pay online or send in your return to the Treasurer Monica Sealey before 31st January; places will be booked on the coach by the treasurer on a first come first served basis.

Cancellations: if you need to cancel or make a late booking, please contact the Treasurer on 01704 809287 or by email monicatuk@yahoo.co.uk who will endeavour to substitute your booking from the waiting list.  If you cancel afte r31st January and it is not possible to fill your place on the coach, regrettably, we will not be able to give you a refund as coaches will have been booked on initial returns.

Please note:  Although we have welcomed had several new members so far this season unfortunately the number of longstanding walkers has fallen dramatically and thus the coach numbers have fallen.  This has obviously meant losing money on the coach each month, very sadly to the point, that if the numbers do not pick up the club will be unable to continue beyond this season .

Club Weekend 30th May – 2nd June 2019 The Club Weekend will be based In Reeth in the Yorkshire Dales and details of accommodation can be found on the following link.www.reeth.org/Hotels-Guest-Houses-lower-Swaledale.htm Please email me at margaretpegg@btinternet.com to let me know if you plan to come on the weekend. Please book your room direct and then let me know where you are staying.

'A’ Walk Distance: 12 miles Ascent: 1,500 ft Leaders: John Hughes Gordon Spence	This walk is on good paths and quiet lanes, with the usual few muddy sections of course! From Gilpin Bridge Inn we head south-west to Mill Side, White Scar  and Beck Head. It may be too early for us but there is a barn here which offers refreshments on a trust basis and interesting décor. Turning north through pleasant woods we have a gentle ascent to Yewbarrow,at 386 ft it gives open views over Morecambe Bay. After a stop we descend to Witherslack and turn north on a quiet country lane to High and Low Woods which provide a pleasant walk, including a search for anything supernatural in the Fairies Cave area. Leaving a short ascent of Bell Rake, on a good path, which quickly finds us on Whitbarrow Scar. The extra height opens up exceptional views of the southern Lake District fells and a gently rising path to the summit ,Lord’s Seat at 675 ft. After a stop on top there is a beautiful hour’s walk with superb views of the River Kent and Morecambe Bay through, not on, the limestone pavements of the National Nature Reserve. We descend to Buck House Wood and a very interesting close up of White Scar Quarries (long since deserted) and back to Mill Side and the Gilpin Inn.
‘B+’ Walk Distance: 11 miles Ascent: 1100 ft Leaders: Lynn Smith Claire Lyons	We begin our walk in Cartmel Racecourse and proceed north westerly, through a pretty wood. We then head to Beckside and on to Seatle. Our next points of interest are Otter Tarn, then Bigland Tarn, from where we pick up the Cumbria Coastal Way. I am told that there are superb views out towards the Leven Estuary and Cartmel Sands, but on the day we did the reccy it was too misty to see anything! This is a very pretty walk, with a variety of scenery.
‘B’ Walk Distance: 9 miles Ascent: 800 ft Leaders: Liz Bellman David Willis	If the weather allows, this should be a very pleasant, relaxing walk that will nicely prime your appetite for the evening meal.  A good mix of open moor/fields, small woods and country roads with views of rolling countryside.  We set off to the south west from the race course car park before heading north to pick up the Cumbria Coastal Way on which we stay across Speel Bank and Scribers Allotment (open moor, not cultivated land) until Grassgarth.  Here we turn east following a country road to Broughton Hall where we cross more open land to reach Aynsome Mill and the final mile across fields and the road back in to Cartmel, where there will be time for a cuppa before the coach departs for the inn.
‘C’ Walk Distance: 8 miles Ascent: 800 ft Leaders: Denise Nunn Barry Whitby	We start this walk by passing through the grounds of the Priory to reach the Cistercian Way and a long steady climb up Hampsfell and to the Hospice where, weather permitting, there are excellent views. This will be done at a steady pace with plenty of stops where necessary. The Hospice was built in 1846 as a refuge for weary travellers on their way to the Priory. We continue northwards along the ridge before descending to farmland, quiet country lanes and woodlands as we pass Greenbank and Beckside and drop down past the Racecourse into Cartmel.