Loweswater

My last visit to Loweswater was the week before ‘lockdown’, a swim at Cockermouth and a pub lunch in the garden at the Kirkstile Inn. It was my partner Kathy’s first visit, a perfect spring day, little did we know what was to come.

A lasting memory of Loweswater, has to be, taking part in the inaugural run of the Buttermere Horseshoe Fell Race, 1985: Loweswater, Hopegill Head, Wandope, Newlands Hause, Robinson, Dale Head, Honister, High Stile, Mellbreak, Loweswater. I finished fourth as I remembered, but my archived result sheet shows Grasmoor as the first checkpoint and not Hopegill Head. Yet, I distinctly remember going up the breast of Whiteside and running the ridge to Hopegill Head, while the majority ran the valley bottom. Memory is a funny thing! Maybe I ran it more than once.