Aira Force to Pooley Bridge - a bit of the Ullswater Way

I've been meaning to do this one for a while, finally got round to it this weekend when there was a clear morning.

Starting off at the High Cascades Car Park at Aira Force, I took the usual route up to Gowbarrow summit, then followed the path round to the sign post for Pooley Bridge (Ullswater Way). From there, the path takes you through some (rather muddy at the moment) woodland followed by open fields.

The route is way marked with Ullswater Way signposts almost all of the way, but I found the Ordnance Survery map to be a little unclear at points, especially around Bennethead/Wreay (note the small blip as I briefly headed down a farmer's track before realising my mistake when I noticed some other walkers coming up the actual path on the other side of the field ).

Pooley Bridge provides a nice finishing point to grab some lunch, but unfortunately there's some major work ongoing at the moment to finally repair the bridge - cars cannot cross the river or even get to the woodland car park at the moment, so to pick up my lift back meant backtracking from the village to near the Waterfoot Caravan Park where there is a new (temporary?) car park.

TallPaul likes this post