108 StagePath the family way to walk Venture back-stage: Ride & Stride with the Patterdale Bus 108 StagePath Venture back-stage: Ride & Stride with the Patterdale Bus The complete green tourism experience combining car, bus, boot and perhaps even boat. INTRODUCING the second dedicated walking route to a Lakeland bus service – also check out the 555 StagePath from Windermere to Keswick. Four walk stages link the regular bus stops for the Patterdale Bus. Take a ticket to ride on Stagecoach’s 108 service on its journey between Penrith to Patterdale then experience the theatre and drama of Lakeland on foot. In piecemeal fashion - drive to each stage-end bus stop - ride back to the preceding bus stop and walk the course of the bus’s majestic run by river, lake and fellside path. The first two walk stages are easy pastoral strolls, the second two encounter the contours and are therefore more energetic, but correspondingly scenically the more stunning too. Discover remarkable historic locations such as Brougham Castle and Brocavum Roman Fort, Mayburgh Henge, King Arthur’s Round Table and Barton Church. Marvel at the delicious beauties of Ullswater visiting Pooley Bridge, Gowbarrow Park, Aira Force and the high bowl of Glencoyne Head, Keldas and Grisedale. A rising crescendo of scenic pleasure from town to country, from riverside path and placid lake to exalted mountain realm in the shadow of Helvellyn and St. Sunday Crag. As a wonderful finalé you can also cruise the length of Ullswater to Pooley Bridge and back, to extend the thrilling emotion afloat. By using the bus you can enjoy both the picturesque scenery and an inspirational health-giving walk. Pure magic every step of the way, to enjoy with family and friends at any season of the year. The whole walk tracks the bus on reliable paths taking advantage of the best views and best walking options. Though not ‘proper fell-walking’ it is nonetheless wise to carry a light daypack with a snack and drink, and wear comfy boots. Some measure of weather protective clothing will come to your rescue if the elements - wind, rain or intense sun - threaten to spoil your ‘off-bus adventure’. Using the bus at the beginning of the day enables you to relax and, walking one stage at a time, you can have fun building up the stages to complete the whole exciting 22-mile journey both on foot and bus. The walk can also be studied in greater detail on-line by visiting www.markrichards.info clicking on Ride & Stride StagePaths. 108 StagePath STAGE 1 Catch the bus at Tirril Penrith | Tirril 5¼ miles 3 hours STAGE 2 Catch the bus at Pooley Bridge Tirril | Pooley Bridge 3¼ miles 1¾ hours STAGE 3 Catch the bus at Aira Force Pooley Bridge | Aira Force 6 miles 3½ hours STAGE 4 Catch the bus at Patterdale Hotel Aira Force | Patterdale 7½ miles 4½ hours CHECK THE TIMETABLE – also displayed at each bus stop – to avoid having to wait for an uncomfortably long time for your back-stage bus. Additionally, phone Traveline 0871 200 22 33 or visit www.stagecoachbus.com for advance planning. The StagePath in the leaflet has been carefully researched and described for clarity of route finding. The maps on the other hand are very basic, as there is no substitute for carrying and referring to the correct Ordnance Survey Explorer Map, acquire OL5 and/or the handy Harvey Lake District Outdoor Atlas. Penrith Map Key Line - Journey of the 108 bus service Dashes - The route of the Tirril 108 StagePath Pooley Bridge Go wbarrow C ottages Aira Fo rce Pa tterdale Window-gazers can reflect on the walk and mountain scenery with the aid of the unique combined 108/Kirkstone Rambler guide to the ride leaflet ‘From A to B to SEE’. STAGE 1 5¼ Miles - 3 Hours Catch the bus at Tirril and travel back-stage to Penrith bus station Walk from PENRITH BUS STATION back to TIRRIL A heritage ladened start to your StagePath adventure leading through the historic town to Brougham Castle then along the Eamont to Yanwath via Eamont Bridge, where you encounter two regionally important monuments the ringwork of King Arthur’s Round Table and amphitheatre of Mayburgh Henge. 1 From Penrith Bus Station in Sandgate pass through the arch and cross the zebra-crossing slant right through the passage on the right side of The Grey Goat (PH). Go over the next zebra crossing to the Spar and bear left by Market Court, thereby wandering round into the churchyard. Spot the curious Giant’s Grave and Thumb beside the north wall of Penrith St Andrew’s church, two single shaft crosses with hogs-back grave stones in between, they Brougham remarkably date from the end of Castle the first millennium. Pass on along the passage into the Market Eamont Bridge Place, the architectural Ma yburgh surround is quite remarkable Ya nwat h deserving of a moment’s 360 degree admiration. Tirril The Giant’s Grave and Giant’s Thumb in St. Andrew’s churchyard, sandstone shafts and hogbacks dating from AD 1000 Brougham Castle (pronounced ‘broom’) on the site of the Roman fort Brocavum 2 Follow the main road pavement left, along King Street this becomes Victoria Road and from which shortly bear left into Roper Street, this becomes Carleton Road. The foot and cycleway arriving at a pedestrian crossing with traffic control lights of the A686. Cross and pass The Cross Keys/Kyloes Grill (a handsome barn-style extension) following on with the old main road, on the foundations of the strata via Roman road from Carlisle to York. This broad road is very quiet today being a cul-de-sac leading down to the Frenchfield Sports Centre. Keep with the continuing confined lane alongside the rowdy A66 and the tall sports-field fencing to a subway beneath the A66. A left-hand turn would give scope to visit English Heritage’s impressive Brougham Castle (pronounced ‘broom’), beautifully observed from the Castle Bridge, partially built upon the site of the Roman fort of Brocavum, sited at the confluence of the rivers Eamont and Lowther (the latter means ‘the foaming or lathered waters’). 3 Turn right and cross the stile (waymarked with Discover Eden kingfisher plates) entering the meadow following on with the river’s edge path via a gated stream bridge, glance left at the weir, leading to a sequence of three stiles One of many prominent door in woodland rounding a lintels in Eamont Bridge modern riverside house compound. Joining the access drive which leads to Eamont Bridge. Notice the odd door lintel datestone on the house across the road facing right, to Nethan and Elisabeth COULL, surely the Roman numerals MMDCCXVIII read 2718? Eamont Bridge has been a significant ford and bridging point for many thousands of years. As a community it is far more ancient than Penrith, much as Stonehenge relates to the River Kennet, the two great monuments in the edge of the village relate to the River Eamont and on a comparable cultural timeline. 4 Cross the tubular footbridge and choose from two options. Either wander right with the riverside track, entering the adjacent field at a kissing-gate at the drive entrance to Bleach Mill. Advance via stiles to the road at Southwaite Green Cottages. Alternatively, follow the village street by the bus shelter passing The Beehive and Crown Hotels to turn right at the mini-roundabout. King Arthur’s Round Table can be visited left by a kissing-gate adjacent to a bus stop. Some four thousand years old the latter-day cultural link with the Regis Arthur myth the result of the ‘lost in the mists of time’ knowledge of its original purpose. Clearly a ritual gathering point, one may presume touching on ancestral connections. The forebears of our contemporary regular church attenders had A wayside motif installed religious observances too, by the East Cumbria it is the pattern of man’s Countryside Project spiritual allegiance with beside the River Eamont place. Eamont Bridge Mayburgh ring mound centred upon a solitary standing stone Standing stone in the middle of Mayburgh The Eden Millennium stone, standing between Mayburgh and King Arthur’s Round Table 5 Follow the road to the next bus stop beside the impressive Millennium Stone, erected in the year 2000 as a modern statement of cultural and spiritual connectivity for the whole Eden district. Follow the cul-de-sac road signed to Southwaite Green, after the right-hand bend (forced by the rude imposition of the M6 motorway) come by a brown Mayburgh Henge sign, where one may slip through a kissing-gate and wander round the high ring bank, at the centre of the amphitheatre stands a 3m high ceremonial megalith. In the C19th there were three further stones, and two pairs flanking the eastern entrance, all wantonly lost. Might this be where maidens played fertility games? The relationship of this monument with the Round Table is perhaps beyond knowing. Gathering all that beckstone to create The Gate Inn, a Slow Food the bank was a colossal rendezvous in Yanwath task but obviated the digging of a bounding ditch. 6 Regain the road by the same kissing-gate. Passing Southwaite Green Cottages descend the access road to go under the motorway, the River Eamont having a separate adjacent underpass. With the caravan site office right and old mill building left take the footpath signed immediately left. Notice the two millstones, gritstone standing on the right, burrstone laying on the left, this latter is a French quarried stone for milling hard grains like wheat.