Name of walk	Place Fell with Father John
Date of walk	2015-08-13
Distance walked (miles)	8
Duration of walk	6 hours 40 minutes
Weather	Sunshine and hot
Peaks on walk	Place Fell
Walked with	Fr. John Inglis
Parking	Lay-by Patterdale

Thursday was due to be a warm and sunny day, so John and I decided to do a walk up to Place Fell from Patterdale returning via the Ullswater Lakeside Path. The walk would be about eight and a half miles long, but on good paths and it would be gentler on the knees than some of our most recent walks. We met up in the lay-by outside the pub car park at 8.30am.

Patterdale from the lay-by. We go in the opposite direction and take the first road off on the left for the path up to Boredale Hause.

View from the bridge. No wind at all today.

Looking back to Patterdale.

View from the diagonal path towards Hartsop Above How, High Hartsop Dodd, Middle Dodd and Hartsop Dodd.

Looking over Ullswater to Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike.

Nye Evans on the path with his big camera. An Australian from Perth doing the Coast to Coast route. He tells me not to mention the cricket, so I casually drop the number '60' in to the conversation! Now that is hardly gloating! Nye was actually born in London and was named after Aneurin Bevin. He is taking his time walking this year, as last year he did the Pennine Way and set his daily mileage too high.

I show Nye the path that heads off in the direction of Kidsty Pike, and John and I head off in the opposite direction up to Place Fell. A good path all the way.

Chapel in the Hause, the remains of a pre-13th century chapel.

View back down to Boredale Hause with Angle Tarn Pikes on the left.

A fell runner is coming down the rock step, we met Beth on her way up. From Patterdale she can run up in 23 minutes.

Beth coming down the rock step.

Beth takes our photo for us.

John at the top of the rock step. Brothers Water behind him.

View to the summit cairn.

John on the summit.

The top of Ullswater in the distance.

Looking over to the Striding Edge route up Helvellyn and the Swirral Edge route from Catstycam. Glenridding below

Place Fell Tarn.

We will follow the route off left below High Dodd.

We meet up with a group of youths from the Outward Bound Centre. They have been wild camping this week, carrying 20kg packs almost as big as they were. They were from all over the country as well as Switzerland and the Netherlands.

We met them again in the shop back at Patterdale where they were stocking up on essentials. They had enjoyed their walk, they have one night left to endure, and its going to be a wet one!

Heading for an old quarry building.

Then we take the left side track and head for the Ullswater Lakeside Path.

We can see the lakeside track below.

Hallin Fell ahead. It has an enormous cairn on top.

We find a rock with a view for lunch. John showing his Mr. Bump and Mr. Happy coffee cups....I'm saying nothing! Just to John's right, on the lakeside path we spot a building. More about that in a minute.

One of the Ullswater Steamers.

Today John has made 'Doorstep Smoked Salmon and Tomato Sandwiches'. Very delicious and juicy!

After lunch we detour off right to investigate the building. A new Tea Room has recently opened on the path. A welcome sight for many hot and thirsty walkers.

There is outside seating too.

We continue back along the lakeside path.

There are good views to be had.

View north towards Pooley Bridge.

Some welcome woodland shade. Today was very hot.

Looking towards Silver Bay.

We get chatting to a family from Diss in Suffolk. If John wasn't a priest he would make a good living as a children's entertainer! The children were Dylan, Harvey and Jessica. I asked if they were all deliberately named after rabbits. (Magic Roundabout, a James Stewart film, and a 'Rabbit' from Who Framed Roger Rabbit) The little lad even has two Beatrix Potter rabbits in his hands! Apparently the naming was not deliberate....I should really learn to keep my mouth shut!

They take our photo for us.

A lovely way to travel on a hot day!

Silver Bay.

Another lovely, slightly more expensive, way to travel.

Looking to the islands of Lingy Holm. Canoeists had landed and were swimming in the water around the island.

One last look back at the path before we disappear behind the wall for the walk to Side Farm

Approaching Side Farm.

Coffee and ice cream time!

View back to Place Fell and Side Farm. We watch the tractor cover the bales in black plastic. Quite ingenious and fascinating to watch.

We visit the White Lion Inn at Patterdale for beer and chips. There is nothing of interest in the 'beer' selection, so I just have Guinness....purely to replenish the electrolytes!

The walk took us six hours and forty minutes, but my GPS showed that nearly two hours of that time was spent not moving! We did do quite a bit of sitting about and chatting! An excellent walk, simple to navigate, superb 360 degree views from the summit, not too taxing and in brilliant weather. Sadly, this would be our last walk together this summer. 🙁  John returns home to Effingham, Surrey, after Mass on Sunday, and I am off to Ireland for a couple of weeks, hoping to do a bit of walking. So there will be no more walking web posts from me until September. It has been a fun-filled and sometimes exhausting four walks. Same again next year, John?

Jo.