About the Becks
ABOUT THE BECKS
3 RAMBLES AROUND THE TORVER AND LOWICK AREA WITH BECKS, TARNS AND SOME OF THE FINEST VIEWS IN THE LAKE DISTRICT. ABOUT THE BECKS
THE WALKS LENGTH AND DURATION THE BECKS
The Lake District is a The walks vary from 3.5 to 5.5 miles (5.6 - 8.8km) Beck is a northern walker’s paradise with of easy to moderate terrain. The walking times are word for stream and many well-known routes, based on walking at a steady pace, with a couple of there are becks galore fells and tarns. This brief stops and are ideal for a half-day with lunch or across the Lake District, booklet aims to take the an afternoon tea to follow as a reward. The route walker along some lesser feeding the lakes, known paths and by becks, descriptions are a general guide so please take a tarns and main rivers. and whilst no mountains map. The becks featured are climbed the views - Torver, Smithy, you’ll see on these walks Langholme, Foudry and are some of the finest. RECOMMENDED MAPS: Greenholme - are a key Greenholme Beck part of the landscape The routes cross OS Explorer OL6, English Lakes South West and a vital habitat for agricultural land and OS Landranger 96 freshwater species from open commons, using FOLLOW THE COUNTRYSIDE CODE small invertebrates quiet lanes and footpaths. We hope the walks will and salmon to herons deepen your appreciation IT’S THE LAKE DISTRICT! Respect other people and otters. Used by and understanding of • Consider the local community & others enjoying man over centuries, freshwater environments Dress appropriately for the weather which can the outdoors the becks and lake and aquatic wildlife in suddenly change so be prepared. Some of the • Leave gates & property as you find them and face many challenges becks or rivers, tarns or routes can be very wet at times so sturdy boots or follow paths from climate change lakes. comfortable wellies are recommended. to pollution. The Protect the Natural Environment Coniston and Crake • Leave no trace of your visit and take all your litter Catchment Partnership, home formed in 2009, • Keep dogs under effective control and South Cumbria Rivers Trust is working Enjoy the Outdoors together to address • Plan ahead and be prepared the challenges with • Follow advice and local signs practical conservation and community engagement through LIVESTOCK the National Lottery Heritage Fund project - Cows can be curious creatures, so you may find Conserving Coniston & yourselves being followed on paths that cross Crake. agricultural land. They are wary of dogs and if with Overlooking Torver Beck young, the cows will be very protective. So please be sensible and keep dogs under close control.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 1 1 Go over the stile and follow the path crossing POINT OF over the new footbridge and Langholme Beck. INTEREST A LOWLAND BECKS, LOWICK BRIDGE Walk across the field then over a stone stile in the hedge.
Cross the next field, go through the gate and along the track to the barns at Everard Lodge Farm. 7 2 Look to your right for a small marker on the corner, follow the track right passing the small 8 sheds then after 10m is a stile on the left in the stone wall. 3 Go over the stile into the wood which in Spring 6 is alive with birdsong and bluebells. Pass through C 9 a tall gate and follow the markers between the 5 trees, through another deer gate quickly followed B by a stile. Bear left, passing by a fabulous beech tree on the right then out onto the lane. The project has worked with the local farmers here to protect A 4 Turn right and walk up the lane, the Cumbria Way Langholme and Foudry 1 joins it further on. Continue over the cattle grid, 3 the lane rising gently to the next junction. becks, to improve 2 conditions for salmon 4 and trout. Fencing POINT OF INTEREST B prevents livestock © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey and database rights (2019) ingress bank erosion. Scan the skies and you may see a Red kite. It creates a protective Parking: Start/finish: Grizedale Forest, on the east side of Coniston An easy to moderate walk buffer strip, enhancing Roadside parking Walk begins at Water was a site for the Red kite re-introduction in-river and bankside along paths and quiet lanes, just past the Red the fingerpost programme. These large birds of prey are easily habitats for a wide Lion pub, off signed Everard identified by their forked tail. mostly through farmland. The range of wildlife. Solar A5086. Lodge ¼ mile. powered drinking bracken can be high in summer 5 Crossing Smithy Beck head straight up Long Lane troughs have been Grid ref: Distance: to Kiln Bank where the path bears right after partly obscuring way markers installed to provide SD292864 5.5 miles the large barn. The small slate CW sign indicates water for livestock. and stiles from a distance. (8.8km) you’re following the Cumbria Way Volunteers have also What3Words: The route also follows a short cleaned the gravels, plenty.campus. Time: 6 Go through the gate ignoring the next sign to removing some of the section of the Cumbria Way. dazzling 2.5 - 3 hours. the right then go through the next gate and bear left. Stay on this path round Subberthwaite Bank sediments that smother keeping right at the marker. Eventually you’ll eggs and reduce oxygen reach a gate and stile. flow to the young fish.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 1 LOWLAND BECKS, LOWICK BRIDGE WALK 2 GREENHOLME BECK & BEACON TARN
C 8
View from Subberthwaite Bank
B 9 Go through the gate bearing left along the track 7 POINT OF C until you reach the single-track lane, which is INTEREST where you leave the Cumbria Way. 7 Turn right then right again after 500m, following the path signposted to Ivy Tree. Eventually, when nearer the farm look ahead for a stile that takes 2 you over a wall. The yellow discs lead you past a 3 1 couple of small pools to a wall surrounding the 4 A woods. Follow the wall right and through a single 6 5 Hardy Volunteers planting gate, the path narrows between the wall and trees, March 2020 fence as you head down to Raisethwaite Lane. © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey and database rights (2019)
8 Turn right and walk down the lane passing A moderate walk onto Blawith Parking: Start/finish: Smithy Beck is one of the through three gates until you reach the junction In Water Yeat by By the village hall, most populated salmon with Long Lane and the entrance to Kiln Bank Fell and to the Beacon, giving the village hall or Water Yeat. streams in the catchment on grass layby just Interestingly the amazing views across Coniston village hall is and great care has been 9 Turn left, reversing the first section of the route. past the cattle taken to ensure it remains Water and beyond. The walk grid up the track called Blawith and Walk along the lane looking out for the stile on Nibthwaite Village this way. Fencing has been the left. Go over the stile, back past the big beech from the village. installed along parts of can be wet in places. Hall even though tree then through the deer gates and woods the beck to create buffer it is situated in to Everard Lodge farm. Cross the fields, the Grid ref: neither hamlet. strips and reduce erosion. SD288891 A number of native trees footbridge and you are soon back to the stile and
planted by volunteers where the walk began. Distance: help stabilise banking and What3Words: 3.5 miles (5.6km) improve biodiversity both skippers.payback. in-river and along the quilting Time: riparian zone. 2 - 2.5 hours.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 2 GREENHOLME BECK & BEACON TARN 1 Walk up the single-track road to Greenholme Farm. At the farm a finger post points you up the hill, with the wall on your left.
2 Continue for 100m, ignoring the grassy path to your right, looking for a stone stile on the left, just before a wooden gate. Go over the stile and follow the faint grassy path diagonally towards gorse bushes with Greenholme Beck on your left. Sculptures at Water Yeat 3 After 100m you will pass by on the left, the remains of a small mill, its leat and the water POINT OF Atlantic salmon are in decline, even lost from some wheel housing hole. INTEREST A becks; barriers to migration is just one reason for this. The mill produced pill boxes for a short time from In the past the beck was altered, and a weir added to the 1850s to 1870. The path rises and you soon Just past the village hall supply a mill. Over time degradation of the weir left reach the beck crossing point. you should see two stone salmon struggling to migrate to and from spawning relief sculptures in the grounds further up the beck. Working closely with 4 Cross the beck and go through the gate. You have stone wall on your left, the landowner the project addressed this. a choice of paths depending on ground conditions. which were installed as • The public footpath takes you across the wet, part of the Conserving A meandering channel was dug out in 2019 bypassing boggy section, heading through the bracken and Coniston & Crake project. the weir and putting the beck back along its original rush to walk closer to the wall to your right. Look over the wall and route enabling fish to reach their spawning grounds. • Alternatively, follow the avoiding wet ground you will see Greenholme Trees were planted to further improve habitat and sign and head up the slope for 30m. Turn right Beck. biodiversity. and follow the path above the boggy section, marked by rushes. In 2020 fish surveys found young salmon in the upper These two paths meet by the stone wall. beck. 5 Follow the path as it climbs through the bracken, with the wall on your right, the views gradually start to open ahead and behind you. Continue along the path until you reach the track to Cockenskell House.
6 At Cockenskell turn left, then right just before the finger post. You are now on part of the Cumbria Way. Continue on the path, keeping closer to the wall and go through the first of three gates. Head between the two walls then pass through the second gate. The path dips down, crossing over Greenholme Beck and through the third gate. Keep © Aerial Artwork. Aerial photo showing old Crossing Greenholme Beck and new sections of Greenholme Beck left, following the Cumbria Way markers up to Beacon Tarn.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 2 GREENHOLME BECK & BEACON TARN POINT OF B WALK 3 INTEREST TORVER’S TRANEARTH Beacon Tarn, picturesque with great views of the Old Man of Coniston, is a lovely spot for wild B 5 swimming. It’s relatively shallow and provides a welcome relief on a hot summer’s day. C Beacon Tarn 6 7 POINT OF 4 C Cross the beck and follow the path to the right INTEREST 7 3 of the tarn, going steeply up the hill to reach the A Beacon Summit. The summit of the Beacon. views from here are far reaching with the 8 There are a few vague paths you could follow whole length of Coniston from here across the common but it’s easier to 2 Water below. Helvellyn is retrace your route back to the tarn. north-eastwards, to the 8 east in the far distance Take the path to the left, following the small beck, D are the Pennines. To the 9 it can be very wet in places and after 500m you’ll 9 south is Morecambe Bay cross a footbridge. Continue down the fell, the 1 with Black Combe to the path narrows and eventually you’ll reach two southwest. The Coniston walls. Carry on heading downhill, keeping left range dominates the where the path divides. © Crown copyright Ordnance Survey and database rights (2019) northwest view. 10 Continue to follow the path downhill, through the A moderate walk that takes Parking: Start/finish: bracken until you eventually reach the track that Crook Corner, Crook Corner takes you back to the start. you to the foot of the Old Man north of Torver of Coniston, gaining 950ft in Village A593. Distance: There is also 4.5 miles elevation (290m). The views a small layby (7.2kms) further up the are amazing. road on right. Time: 2.5 - 3 hours Grid ref: SD284945
What3Words: pulsing.reach. View from the Beacon routs
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 3 TORVER’S TRANEARTH 1 Head up the lane, there are plenty of signs POINT OF A directing you towards Tranearth. The lane POINT OF B INTEREST gradually becomes a stony track as you pass INTEREST through two gates, climbing steadily up hill. At Torver Bridge the path meets the Walna 2 Just after the barn on the left, fork right, following Scar Road, part of the the bridleway until you reach the climbing hut. former packhorse route between Furness Abbey 3 Cross the small beck keeping the hut to your left, and Coniston. The views follow the path and you soon reach the quite are magnificent from the sophisticated sheep pen and wash against the splendid stone bridge backdrop of spoil heaps. spanning Torver Beck.
You can shorten the walk at this point by crossing You may choose to the beck and following the path down the side of extend the walk from the beck. View from Torver Bridge here to reach Dow Crag, Goats Water and the Old Torver Beck is one of the longest in the catchment Man of Coniston but an at 5 miles (8.05kms) Starting in the Coniston OS map will be needed. and Torver fells it winds its way down to the lake 5 Walk over the bridge and follow Walna Scar Road shore at Sunny Bank. for about 300m, crossing two small tributaries. Torver Beck & The Old Man Just after the second one take the grassy path on 4 Go through the gate on the left and follow this your right through the bracken, winding downhill POINT OF C lesser used path, passing between a wall and a alongside the beck passing Banishead Quarry INTEREST The climbing hut is a waste slate heap. Keep a look out for directional until you reach the sheep pen. former farm so not quite arrows at ground level as you walk between the Banishead Quarry. The what you’d expect. clumps of rush. 6 Ignore the bridge and sign for Torver and story is that the waterfall On your right you’ll see a disused quarry. The continue straight ahead, over a small footbridge, was created in the 1950s The project has worked path takes you over smaller tributaries with far keeping Torver Beck on your right. You will pass a by local schoolboys who with the National Trust reaching views of Dow Crag and the Old Man of series of water gates, known as hecks in Cumbria. decided to remove the here to provide some Coniston ahead of you. You may also see walkers The timber for the two newest ones were brought rocks separating the beck protection to the beck, on the other side of the beck, following Walna on site by a horse logger. from the quarry edge! to reduce bank erosion Scar Road from Coniston. Continue up the path and livestock incursion. until you reach an old packhorse bridge. The fencing creates buffer strips, allowing a Crossing over wider range of species Torver Bridge to flourish whilst trees have also been planted to further enhance the area. The buffer strips are surveyed by volunteers to record the species and Banishead Quarry changes.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS WALK 3 TORVER’S TRANEARTH ABOUT THE LOCAL CATCHMENT INFORMATION & REFRESHMENTS
The Coniston and Crake Catchment covers an area The Information of 35 sq. miles and has a mosaic of habitats from Centre at Coniston is agricultural fields and woodland to bracken-covered a great place for local fells and upland flushes. knowledge, guides books and maps that Coniston Water is about 5 miles long, half a mile will take you around wide and reaches a depth of 56m. The River Crake Tarn Hows or to the flows for just under 4 miles from the southern end top of the Old Man of of the lake until it reaches the Leven Estuary and Coniston. Morecambe Bay at Greenodd. Numerous becks
feed the lake, including Church, School, Yewdale For refreshments and Torver, whilst Smithy, Foudry, Greenholme and there are pubs in Langholme flow into the Crake. Torver, Lowick Bridge
and Spark Bridge. Key species include Atlantic salmon, brown and sea There is a fabulous trout, Arctic charr and the critically endangered bakery with café as European eel. Dippers and grey wagtails can well as a chippy in sometimes be seen catching the riverflies and Water Hecks Greenodd. freshwater invertebrates which underpin the food
chain of the becks. Pipistrelles and Daubenton’s bats Head into Coniston also rely on the riverflies, as do the small fish which POINT OF The path rises briefly before dipping again, for a wider range of D 7 feed the kingfishers. Otters are also spotted along the INTEREST bringing you to a gate in the wall. Bear right cafes and pubs, and River Crake and in the margins of the lake. following the way marker. Continue along the on the east side of the
This was the Foxfield to grassy path, passing an old barn on your right and lake is the Swallows Good water quality is key for the health of the Coniston line, opened go through more gates. Keep walking downhill and Amazons tearoom becks, lake and wildlife. It is however, affected by in 1859 by the Furness and you soon reach a collection of cottages and and the Terrace at sediment, nutrient and heavy metal inputs from Railway Company. The the main road (A593). Brantwood. final freight train ran in agriculture, private sewage systems and past mining 1962. Its main purpose 8 Cross the road carefully, turn right and follow the works. Barriers to migration affect fish spawning, was the transport of slate footpath for 100m. Turn through the gate, then whilst sedimentation reduces the success of egg and and copper ore mined in keep left at next finger post, following the old fry developments. Sewage and nutrient pollution Coniston and to improve railway line. impacts on invertebrates and fish. the tourist trade in the area. 9 Pass under the bridge and keep walking until you The aim of the Conserving Coniston & Crake project reach the next finger post. Follow the path on the is to address these issues through a wide range of right across the fields where you meet the A593 practical conservation work and engagement with again. You only have few metres to walk along the landowners, communities and visitors. road back to your car, either left to Crook corner or right to the layby.
CONSERVING CONISTON & CRAKE ABOUT THE BECKS ABOUT THE CATCHMENT Conserving Coniston & Crake, a three-year Images © South Cumbria National Lottery Heritage Funded project, Rivers Trust with the aim of improving water quality, habitat and biodiversity in the Coniston Maps © Crown Copyright and River Crake catchment area through and database rights 2019. practical conservation work and community Ordnance Survey engagement. 100002698
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