15/12/25 - Dunnerdale for the Newfield Inn

Ford the Waterfalls

More than 10" of rain over 24 hours in Seathwaite. Our only surprise, the rain stopped 24 hours earlier than predicted.

Whopping rainfall totals for the Lake District.

Not that far off 2 day record (although not sure if strange rules around 9-9am timings come into play)

Surprisingly few impacts, presumably as high totals are confined to uplands and catchment totals much lower. pic.twitter.com/ftpJgr35iu

— Dave Throup (@DaveThroup) December 15, 2025

This walk is a fine example of why I should carefully study both the route guide and the OS Map.

After spotting a little car park at Seathwaite - hopefully high enough above the River Duddon - we abandon the car journey. There is just no point risking "white van man" on these single track lanes. The Evri driver - for it was sure to be an Evri driver - nearly putting himself up a hedge half a mile back.

A safe place to start - The River Duddon

For a route from "Best Pub Walks" - this is a remote challenge of some beauty. "Not for the unadventurous or the lily-livered" is the opening line.

We follow Tarn Beck up the valley and past Tongue House. It's squelchy underfoot, with Mrs M occasionally disappearing up to her knees. For a border terrier, Ruby makes light work of it on her little legs.

The livestock at Tongue House Farm

We can see the torrent of waterfalls ahead - and it's after a careful look at the OS Map, I start to have concern, that I bravely keep to myself. No point in worrying Mrs M, still chuntering about "Trench Foot". The crossing of the rapids simply shows the path stopping and restarting on the other side. Where are those magic letters "FB"?

The guide book;

"You'll soon reach a point where Tarn Beck plunges from your right over a spectacular series of waterfalls and shoots..... I'll leave you to find your own way across"

   

I have never been so pleased to see a bridge. Truly a case of "The trail will provide".

Relief

Things soon revert to type - the path becomes indistinct and bares no resemblance to the OS Map. Unnecessary climbs and descents and complicated fences and stone walls to try and find a crossing. The forested area of Pike How Close a disaster area. I am not sure what you can call a forest where every single tree has fallen down in a previous storm.  It makes for a very difficult crossing.

Relief, as we emerge at the top of the valley, through the forest

The return is far more pleasant - through a Dunnerdale Forest on proper rides. Where there is a stream, there is a bridge. To the side of the gloriously named Wallowbarrow Crag and a debate about whether to try the pub.

Around Wallowbarrow Crag

Incredibly, for somewhere so remote, I have been to the Newfield Inn before. It formed part of the Inn Way to the Lake District. My notes declaring it the cheapest pint of the week at £3. See if you can guess the year, without clicking the link.

Negotiations ensue... I put up a good case for going, Mrs M declares - and I quote - she is soaked through to the gusset and would rather head home.

We both agree that the chances of it being open at 1pm on a Monday in winter are slim.

2nd Time around for Mappiman

The trail provides for the second time today. The outer door is ajar and to placate Mrs M and her damp pants, the log burner is set to "furnace".

We might be the only customers - but the barman is ready and waiting - looking resplendent in a tie and waistcoat combo. We express our surprise at his opening but in a phrase that will bring joy to the heart of pub tickers everywhere he states "you have to keep consistent hours".

Unexpected Keswick Gold

I really should have explored more and brought better internal photos but we were kept enrapt by conversions about everything from graphite mining (boo Keswick for stealing the glory!), Napoleon, Americans on sheep safaris and how poor Sealskinz gloves are in comparison to their socks.

I need to rethink Mrs M's Xmas present.

Although they might do pants.

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in the Lake District - Walk 19 

13/12/25 - The Queens Head, Hawkshead

Hunting for the Girt Clog 

Hawkshead, the prettiest village in the Lake District, is all cobbled streets, narrow alley ways and little squares. Easy to get lost in somewhere so small. With Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter associations, its a tourist hotspot, with plenty of signs saying who did what where.

December is the time to come. If you can afford the car parking (when it's north of a London pint, you are in trouble). The tourist hoardes are away in shopping centres leaving space in the many cafes and pubs.

An Adventure Lab Cache shows us the historical places in town, but we concentrate on the "Doors Open" St Michael and All Angels Church. Norse origins, stunning internal arches, fenced off tombs, wall mounted paintings of biblical quotations and some fine windows.

Ruby and Mrs M on the hunt for ALC Clues

Church on the Hill

Arches built with no formal plans

A slightly inaccessible tomb

Our walk today is infinitely better than the pictures would suggest. Mainly, and this is surprising when you consider the rain, it is completely mud free. Even the grazing fields mainly have paths with a hardcore layer. We cannot believe our luck.

North to Outgate, past Blelham Tarn to Wray Castle, down to Windermere and a circuit of Latterbarrow - without finding the minor path to the summit.

Blelham Tarn

Look at the quality of that path!

Wray Castle Entry - with a cafe that would have added 2m to the walk

A brief view of Lake Windermere

Back to the village, where Mrs M wants to look for last minute Christmas presents. Leaving me the dilemma of which of the many pubs to test. The Red Lion looked a solid Robinsons. The Kings Arms had the best reviews on line. There is a newish little craft beer micro pub that could have offered something different. However, in the back of my mind, I remembered that the Guide Book I am following had recommended The Queens Head.  

I made my choice and I will stick with it.

Lets compare what they had to say in 1992 against what I found today;

"... Looks at first sight to be a sham. The black and white render exterior just that bit too symmetrical to be true, the render and stonework just that bit too regular to belong to centuries past"

It is indeed the oldest pub in the village, serving drovers and packhorse men from the C17th and possibly earlier - a fact confirmed once inside and you see how low the ceilings are. 

"The oldest artifact, however, is the enormous old shoe, known as the Girt Clog, mounted in a trophy case about the fireplace"

Apparently, this is a massive shoe that looked like a taxidermists attempt at a mis-shaped tench. It was made in the 1820s for a local mole catcher, who suffered from elephantiasis.

Moved from the Brown Cow to the Queens Head

Despite providing the name for the local mountaineering club, I don't think the aforementioned footwear is on display anymore.  Internally, its had a make over befitting of the type of punter they expect to lure in nowadays. I am not sure a memento of deformity would be in keeping.  

You don't get this sort of content from other bloggers, but even I have shied away from sending the pub a message to confirm its whereabouts.

However, if I returned, I am sure to ask.

"... offers quality food good enough to accompany the Hartley's XB"

Hartley's brewery was absorbed into Robinsons in 1962 and the brewery at Ulverston closed down. This is now a Robinson's tied house. I went for the Cumbria Way but with a twist.

Old Tom available as takeaway in bottles.

The clog should have been out of shot, to the right

I should have brought a dozen. We are predicted 8" of rain over the next 48 hours.

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in the Lake District - Walk 17

   

12/12/25 - Ulverston Canal and Hoad Hill for the Swan

Making a Port and a Pepperpot

Another week in the hinterlands between Coniston and Ulverston. A week where the forecasted rain drops from 100% to 98% for an hour and then goes back to maximum.

Apart from today. 

I know we will need supplies and I know the Good Beer Guide Pubs will have shuffled around since our last visit in February. Ulverston has the supermarket - Booths, beating Waitrose into a cocked hat for never knowingly being oversold.

I knew that the Pepperpot on Hoad Hill needed investigating. Komoot bringing my attention to a previously unobserved canal. We start at Canal Foot, where the waterway meets the Irish Sea.

Back Dog Sitting Ruby

The Arrow Straight Ulverston Canal

The Ulverston Canal, built by engineer John Rennie and opened in 1796, is a 1¼-mile-long, straight, lock-free waterway linking Ulverston to the Leven estuary and the Irish Sea. Unusually deep and wide for its time, it made Ulverston a functioning port, enabling the export of slate, ores, and manufactured goods during the Industrial Revolution. Trade declined after the arrival of the Furness Railway in 1846, and the canal ceased commercial use in the early 20th century, being formally abandoned around 1945.

The canal leads to town, where we complete a circuit of Hoad Hill. The John Barrow monument dominates the town. When is a lighthouse not a lighthouse? When it doesn't have a light. A stiff climb if you ignore paths for shortcuts. The views over the fells more dramatic than over Morecambe Bay.

Lighthouse... or not.

Up close

A drop down into town for the oldest building - St Mary's Church of Norman origins - and refreshment.

Norman Origins

We never made it to the Stan Laurel Pub during our last visit. A keeper of odd hours. It's now dropped out of the bible, but we still have The Swan to tick. According to Google - if not Visit Ulverston - it does open at midday. One day, all on-line resources will align for the sanity of pub tickers the world over.

Handsome outside

Inside, its three very high ceiling rooms in increasings levels of dishevelment. But we're not here for the decor - we are here for the beer - and a rather wonderful log fire. 

The pub is the very definition of wet-led - with half a dozen cask which includes the driver unfriendly Wobbly Bob at 6% and a very good Timothy Taylor Landlord. The chewy type that leaves deep lacings all down the glass.

Mrs M a little upset that there were no cobs on offer. Or whatever they call them in Cumbria.

The lunch of gods - crisps

Walk Details

Distance - 5.5 Miles

Geocaches - 15

Walk Inspiration

08/12/25 - On the Trail of..... Woodbine Willie

The Fighting Chaplain

A walk inspired by the History West Midlands Podcast. 

This episode is all about Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, AKA Woodbine Willie. Born in Leeds but living most of his life in Worcester, he became famous during WWI, for serving as a Chaplain amongst the ordinary men he befriended by luring them in with cigarettes. A blueprint followed less heroically by certain types of men ever since.

Woodbine Willie was the nickname of the Reverend Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, a charismatic Anglican priest and poet who became a legend of the First World War for his unusual ministry on the front line. Serving as a chaplain with the British Army, he was known for handing out “Woodbines” – cheap cigarettes – along with spiritual comfort, practical help, and a dose of black humour to soldiers in the trenches. His bravery was widely admired; he often ran into no man’s land to aid the wounded and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. After the war he became a prominent Christian socialist, championing workers’ rights and social reform until his early death in 1929. His memory endures in Worcester, where memorials and local stories preserve the image of a priest who believed faith had to be lived, shared, and carried into the mud with those who needed it most.

Ironically, he died rather young, from lung disease. Bless their little socks, the Worcester population knew no better than to scatter Woodbines on his funeral cortege. When I go, they can shower my coffin in Bathams.

 

From Worcester Cathedral

My work is very nearly already done for the walk. As part of the WWI Centenary celebrations in 2018, a booklet of a walk of the key locations was produced by Worcester Council. Alas, the URL is dead and the Tourist Information Centre could only reply to my query with the kindness that you only get from public sector training.

Too low resolution to be of practical use

From the Podcast, I can pull out some key locations.

I start at the end - his grave in St Johns Cemetery. Not hard to find, he has the grandest grave, flanked by the highest of hedges.

Worcester Remembers

Memorial doesn't photo well, but just about legible

The Podcast talks about a protest march at the plight of returning servicemen that was completed from Pitchcroft to the Guild Hall. Let's hope what it lacked in distance it made up for impact.

At Pitchcroft, there is an information board.

Where Tourist Information are happy to answer questions about old PDF files

In between - The Corn Market has a tiny statue outside a phone repair shop and St Pauls, where he worked, has a blue plaque. Photos inside stopped due to a Mother-and-Toddler session which a solo male rambler would have caused concern. 

Even without fags to hand out.

Quite well celebrated, I would have said

Red Brick St Pauls

Surprisingly, for a man of the people that was known to spread the word in pubs, there is no record any pub particularly associated with the man. The Cardinal's Hat was suggested by AI, but for no other reason than it is close to St Pauls, the oldest in Worcester and he probably went there.

Even that is too dubious for me.

Walk Details

Distance - 2.5 Miles

Geocaches - 0