20/03/26 - The Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater

Mellbreak-ing Bad

The Kirkstile Inn has to be one of the best pubs in the land. But you have to earn those pints of Loweswater Gold and boy, did we earn them.

This actually could have been a really pleasant walk - without the nausea and the relentless traipse up the side of a mountain on indistinct paths. With this route from the normally rather pedestrian Country Walking Magazine.

Starting from the pub, we walk the western flanks of Mellbreak - following the Mosedale Beck. It's a pleasant farm track, where the only other signs of life are sheep.

Easy Walking

To get that Wainwright Tick - we need to get to the top. My suspicions were aroused in plotting the walk - just before Mosedale Holly Tree (the only tree marked on an OS Map, fact-fans) there is an arrow straight minor path running straight up the side of the mountain. Of course, in reality, there is nothing there. A man in a blue jacket follows a similar marked path to the north but I can only imagine the terrain is equally as tough. All of us stop for regular breathers/the chance not to throw up.

You can ask Mrs M if Mellbreak was worth it

Honestly, the views at the bottom are just as impressive

The descent is better - and it simply leads us to the good path we previously left. 

Mappiman, relieved to have got us down to Black Beck

The return to the pub is as good as walking can get. We simply have to follow the shoreline of Crummock Water along soggy but excellent paths. The Grasmoor reflections in the still water are stunning. There is a little jut of land out in the water, Low Ling Crag, which brought me to tears on my last visit, 9 years ago. The emotion expressed was possibly as much to do with the liquid lunch at the Kirkstile Inn, as I was walking away from it on that day.

Low Ling Crag - an "island", as the end of a causeway

Looking down Crummock Water

The pub is the reward - and the Kirkstile is a special place. In a hamlet, with a small number of buildings and a church, this is a real walkers pub where you can come straight off the fells. If the weather is good - and it was - a lovely, sheltered beer garden is perfect. Most punters with maps out, playing i-Spy and naming the surrounding fells.

It's also the home of the aforementioned Loweswater Gold. A former Champion Beer of Britain. So good, Mrs M moved off from her regular fruit based drinks and declared it "inoffensive". High praise indeed.

Water chaser and the patient wait for fish-finger sandwiches

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Meet the gang

Walk Details

Distance - 6.5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, May 2015, Walk 15

Geocaches - 0