Latrigg (8/214)
WALK DETAILS
Length: 5.93km
Elv. Gain: 301m
Duration: 1h 35m
Av. Pace: 16:02
I’m from a very flat country. Not quite as flat as The Netherlands (where about 26% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level), but close. Not all of Belgium is that flat; our highest peak stands at a mighty 694m /2,277 feet (almost as tall as the 93rd highest fell in The Lake District), but the part I’m from -which is situated in the bend of De Schelde just before it goes into The North Sea- is flat enough for headwind and tailwind to completely make or break a cycle (if there are no hills or trees to break the wind, it makes a very big difference). The reason I mention this is because I feel that when you’ve grown up in a country with hills, even little ones like here in the UK, you don’t quite appreciate how flat ‘flat’ is. To me every hill seems like a mountain.
The fist time I saw proper hills was when I was fifteen, when my scouts group took us on ‘foreign camp’ to Scotland, and I instantly fell in love with The Great Outdoors. I visited Scotland about six times before I made the move to Manchester. Granted, the only reason I moved to The North was because of the Royal Northern College of Music, I hadn’t yet realised there was such good walking up here. But I soon discovered The Peak District and couldn’t believe my luck when I realised The Lake District was only a two hour drive away. When I learned about Alfred Wainwright and the fact that he had made a list (with pictures) of all of the fells, I instantly knew my new life’s mission: to walk all the fells of The Lake District.
Fast forward one pandemic, one baby and one career change, and here I am in 2023 climbing my 8th fell out of the list of 214, on a rainy Wednesday at 9 in the morning: Latrigg.
The view on Borrowdale from the top of Castlehead, Keswick.
We went the ‘purist’ way, starting from the bottom instead of the car park a bit further up the hill. It’s a nice walk, which starts off a bit steep, but with a quick pay-off. It’s slightly disappointing to hear the A-road for such a long time while you’re walking, but there’s obviously not much can be done about that. We were greeted at the top by a herd of not-so-friendly cows, and hurried back down for our planned afternoon trip to The Lake District Wildlife Park.
It’s a great little mini-fell that won’t take up your whole day, so you can easily plan something else alongside it. I wouldn’t say it was my favourite fell so far, but the views over Keswick and Borrowdale are stunning and well worth the walk. We also accidentally discovered a very nice, tiny walk (10 mins or so) on Castlehead (161m/528 feet) near where we were staying, which -in my humble opinion- gives you an even better view and is definitely worth checking out if you’re not much of a hiker but love a good view.
