A very windy and rainy night. As the wind got stronger after midnight I kept getting knocked across the tent and woken up. Fortunately the worst of the rain was over by morning. I’m sure my campsite was in a spectacular position but I couldn’t see anything. The ground was sodden as I rolled my tent up but I managed to get underway just after 7am. My first objective was the summit of Swirl How where I had to find the path down. The way on was diagonally up the fell side which by now wasn’t too steep. The wind however made the going very difficult as keeping upright was harder than climbing up the hill. By the time I got to the summit cairn I measured the wind at 55mph but it must have been gusting to higher. Fortunately the cairn is large and tall and I was able to grab a few moments of shelter before setting off down Prison Band. With the wind coming from the west and me descending to the east I thought I was going to get some shelter, but I didn’t. I was blown all over the place on the way down and even on reaching the cairn at Swirl Haws I was still struggling to keep upright. From now on the path was easy and safe but I still hadn’t dropped below the cloud base. I was on my way down to catch the bus home but others would be getting ready to go walking on the fells, this being a Saturday morning. The path down was in a terrible condition with water cascading off the fells and then being channelled down the path. I’d managed to keep my gloves relatively dry up to now but I was blown over a few times and had to arrest my fall by putting gloved hands into the water laden grass. Eventually the outline of Levers Water reservoir appeared through the murk and I longed to get along its very rock path to the embankment where I knew there was an unsurfaced road. Even when I got there it wasn’t as good as expected due to the loose stones.

By now I could see below and just kept on down until the building came in to view below. There were plenty of people about and several were setting off for the fells as I wandered down into Coniston Village. It was about 9:50am when I got to the bus stop and the 9:40 bus to Ambleside had gone. I decided to catch the 10:30am bus to Ulverston to catch the train there.

Approaching Coniston.

Part of the Miss Potter display in Coniston
Renée Zellweger as Beatrix Potter.

Part of the Miss Potter display in Coniston

Catching the train in Ulverston.

With a bit of time to kill I had a look in the visitor centre where they had a display on of some memorabilia from last years filming of ‘Miss Potter’ largely filmed just outside Coniston at Yew Tree Farm. The film was about the life of Beatrix Potter. The X12 bus arrived on time and dropped me off at Ulverston Railway Station where I caught the 11:37am direct back to Chorley. As usual the sun came out as I left Cumbria.