The upper reaches of the River Esk
This is without doubt one of the best waterfall walks we do. We don't usually hit any summits (although can extend the walk so we do) but undertake a brilliant loop up the River Esk and back down Lingcove Beck. I'm still on catch-up with my blogs and this one was a couple of weeks ago - the snow had gone from the lower slopes (and most of the upper ones too) but the gills/becks/rivers were fairly full from recent rain and, despite the chilly and overcast conditions, it was a great day to be out.
From Jubilee Bridge at the far end of Eskdale (just below Hardknott Roman Fort) we head into the hills along the River Esk - the falls and pools along this first stretch are always delightful and we take our time and take a path that sits close to the water, always getting even closer when we can. You can see below that although the sky was full we got some great late Autumn colours.
We reach Lingcove Bridge and things start to feel different as we climb deeper into the mountains, having to tread more carefully as we pick our way up alongside even more spectacular falls until eventually reaching a much flatter section of the river valley that feels almost out of place this high up with large sweeping river bends and boggy river banks (see below).
From here, even though there's the option to keep going deeper (towards Scafell and Scafell Pike) we headed eastwards to meet, and cross, Lingcove Beck and to follow this back down to Eskdale. Getting across took a little longer than planned (did I mention that there was a lot of water about??!!) but the east side of the beck is definitely the best side to head down. More pools and falls followed (today I tried a pan, below, to capture some of these) until we eventually got back to the River Esk for the walk back to Jubilee Bridge (which, with many fewer stops for photos, took us much less time!!).
This is one of the many superb walks to take around Eskdale. Join us for one!!
Andy
From Jubilee Bridge at the far end of Eskdale (just below Hardknott Roman Fort) we head into the hills along the River Esk - the falls and pools along this first stretch are always delightful and we take our time and take a path that sits close to the water, always getting even closer when we can. You can see below that although the sky was full we got some great late Autumn colours.
We reach Lingcove Bridge and things start to feel different as we climb deeper into the mountains, having to tread more carefully as we pick our way up alongside even more spectacular falls until eventually reaching a much flatter section of the river valley that feels almost out of place this high up with large sweeping river bends and boggy river banks (see below).
From here, even though there's the option to keep going deeper (towards Scafell and Scafell Pike) we headed eastwards to meet, and cross, Lingcove Beck and to follow this back down to Eskdale. Getting across took a little longer than planned (did I mention that there was a lot of water about??!!) but the east side of the beck is definitely the best side to head down. More pools and falls followed (today I tried a pan, below, to capture some of these) until we eventually got back to the River Esk for the walk back to Jubilee Bridge (which, with many fewer stops for photos, took us much less time!!).
This is one of the many superb walks to take around Eskdale. Join us for one!!
Andy