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Heughscar Hill from Roehead, Pooley Bridge

Heughscar Hill is an excellent short walk from the hamlet of Roehead, not far from Pooley Bridge. It has dramatic distant views to the Helvellyn range at the far end of Ullswater, a circle of stones, and small outcrops of limestone pavement.

Limestone in the Lake District is quite rare. The rock here is mostly volcanic, but here and there is limestone formed from the shells and corals of an ancient sea. Although having been compressed for millennia into quite a hard rock it can be etched and eroded by slightly acidic rainwater to form the classic pavements more usually associated with the Yorkshire Dales. Another feature in common with the Dales are shakeholes, or as those who study the way the geology has changed over time, geomorphologists, call them: subsidence dolines. Shakehole sounds more exciting.

There is an informal parking beside the road at Roehead, where this walk starts. To get to Roehead, take the B5320 road out from the centre of Pooley Bridge to Penrith, at the mini-roundabout bear right taking the minor road to Martindale. At the crossroads go straight ahead signposted Howe Hill caravan site, continuing to the end of the road where it widens to allow some rough parking spaces.