Cycling The English Lake District

For our 2013 cycling holiday we cycled from Stocksfield, Northumberland, west to the Lake District.

Follow our route on the map below: it can be panned and zoomed. Route grading using Cycalc.

View Cycling 2013 in a larger map

We set off from Alasdair’s home on Saturday 31 August

Our first day: 31-miles with 3915ft ascent, grade hard-D(77W): the hardest first-day ever! Windy, but we did have sunshine however, as we crossed the moors of Northumberland and Durham

Long, quiet, roads, and strange residents

The wind was occasionally directly in our faces, therefore quite tiring at times

The wind didn’t seem to affect Julie, as we crossed into Teesdale

Looking back towards the Durham dales

We finally made it to the Forresters Hotel, Middleton-in-Teesdale

Day-2: 30-miles with 2547ft ascent, grade mild-C(62W), was even windier: ~14MPH, as later estimated, into our face most of the day!

One section in particular, climbing over the pass into Cumbria, was extremely windy!

And on and on, into the wind across the Cumbian moors…

We finally make it to our night-stop, Westmorland Hotel: was I glad!

This day was supposed to be the easy-cycling day, however due to the wind it was the hardest days of the holiday – quite possibly making it an Ex-grade

The next day, day-3: 30-miles with 3300ft ascent, grade average-D(69W), the wind was much subsided. And we finally reached the Lake District

As we progressed towards Shap, the cloud got lower providing a cooling damp

Over the bridge of the River Lune

Spectators turned out in force to cheer us on. And finally we crested the last hill of the day

We catch our first view of a lake: Lake Windermere

Our accommodation in south Windermere was the Newby Bridge Hotel

The following day: 31-miles with 2840ft ascent, grade mild-D(69W) the weather had improved enormously: 18degC, blue sky and no wind!

It was a fabulous day. We passed many lakes and tarns (as here: Esthwaite Water)

Passed through many beautiful Lakeland villages (such as Hawkshead)

And not forgetting the Lakeland Mountains (the view of Langdale from Skelwith Fold)

There was the occasional 27% hill, but on the whole the cycling was fabulous

The downhills could be scary, but the views were worth it! (Here looking towards the Helvellyn massif, with lake Grasmere).

There’s always time for tea and cake

How idyllic: tea, hot chocolate and cakes on the shores of lake Grasmere

Back on the road we cycle nearer and nearer to Helvellyn as we approach Thirlmere

Thirlmere

All of the cars use the road on the other side of the lake. The quiet west-lake road is superb cycling

In the 1890 a dam turned two smaller lakes (Leathes Water and Wythburn Water) into Thirlmere

From Thirlmere we cycle into St John’s in the Vale

An old packhorse bridge over St John’s Beck. Skiddaw is in the far background of the right-hand photo

We visited Castlerigg Neolithic Monument, dating from around 3200B.C.E.

Not far now to Keswick, and two nights stay

We finally arrive at the Highfield Hotel, and our day of rest in luxury

Julie is overjoyed with finding the BIG bath

The following day, our rest day, we meandered around Keswick and Derwent Water

Time to relax and wait for the ferry

Derwent Water is a lovely lake: ideal for kids in boats

We are on holiday, after all

Market day in Keswick, but for us it’s time to leave. We head-out on the disused railway line on route for Melmerby (31-miles with 2370ft ascent, grade average-C(64W)

In the village of Greystoke there is a great cyclists rest stop: not to be missed!

An absolutely stunning, imaginative, restoration of an ancient building: Blencowe Hall

Sometimes the going got a little tricky

We arrived at our B&B (The Gatehouse) in Melmerby not knowing when the much-forecasted rain would come

We managed to stay dry when we went to the local pub for a meal: Shepherds Inn

The following day: 36-miles with 3200ft ascent, grade average-D(63W) without the inclement weather, which was the longest day of the holiday, and up the highest pass (1900ft), it was absolutely p***ing-down! The MET Office issued flood warning for the very roads we had to use! I was not a happy chappy!

From Melmerby the road progresses constantly uphill for the first 5-miles to the top of Heartside Pass.

Water was running down the road in torrents. Luckily for us very little traffic was using the road – some folk at least heeded the weather warning

You’ve just got to keep smiling through. At lease Heartside Pass has a tearoom!

Needless to say, the cameras were packed safely away in waterproof containers. There are no other photos of this epic day!

The rain finally stopped after about 24-hours. We stayed our last night in the Anchor Hotel, Haydon Bridge, right on the banks of a much swollen River South Tyne. We couldn’t face another day of rain and steep hills, so we radically revised the route for the last day: 28-miles with 2850ft ascent, grade average-C(69W)

Back into Hadrian’s Wall country, with occasional showers to keep us cool

The route back to Alasdiar’s was not without difficulty

Well, another year’s cycling adventure comes to an end: 217-miles with 21000-ft of ascent

Many thanks for accommodating us Alasdair. And:

Thanks to Pushkin for his entertainment :-)

After the holiday, the very next time Julie was on her bike (cycling back from work), the rear wheel disintegrated!

We’re very lucky that this didn’t happen whilst we were cycling across remote moors!

Back to the Top