The Meanderthals: THE GRAND OLD DUKE OF .......

HAMPSFELL 8 Miles (?)

WALKERS :- Anthony, Vic, Martin, Mick, John R, John W.

The route

The height profile

With our numbers severely depleted by the holiday season we drove up the M6 leaving at Junction 36 and passing through a busy Grange-Over-Sands to park in a little side street at the far end of the promenade.

Almost immediately we were climbing up a hill albeit the road towards Grange.

We crossed the main coastal road and continued our upward progress along the road leading towards Cartmel. Soon after topping this "FIRST" hill we turned off the road and wended our way through a neatly laid out caravan park.

The caravan park included some lanes with overgrown edges and here there was evidence of badgers with several large burrows and well used pathways through the undergrowth.

Badger tracks ?

Through the caravans and out again onto another hilly road before climbing higher still. We had paused to admire the view when a young lady came out of her garden and offered to take a group photo for us. "Yes please. Thank You !"

The sign towards which John W is pointing says

"Slow - Children playing" ---- Very apt !

It wasn't long before we left the road and followed the footpath across a field.

to skirt a rather delightful golf course. ("Did I really say that ?" said our decidedly non golf fan writer) but before then we stopped for a late coffee break.

The sun, as you can see, is shining and and continued to do so for most of the day.
We followed the fence at the edge of the golf course but at one point the path left it's immediate proximity only to return some distance further on. This was precisely at the place where we should have crossed the fairways. We MISSED it ! We continued for some distance looking for the path only to be warned off by unfriendly stiles.

As well as saying "PRIVATE" the stiles told us "Only golfers allowed" and that we were being watched by CCTV cameras ... Nice !

As we walked the fells of the Lake District could be seen hazily filling the far horizon.

We eventually came to the end of the fairways and to a fence with a complete lack of stiles. We chatted to some golfers who said there was a right of way almost back where we had started and so we made our way back to eventually find the RIGHT stile.

Over which we climbed.

Once across the manicured lawns of the golf course it was simply a matter of following the road down into Cartmel. Did I say simple ? Very little is simple on MEANDERTHAL walks. A large thick hedge and chained and barb-wired gates prevented us from reaching the road. Not a sign of a stile in spite of wandering back and forth for several minutes. John R eventually found it. A very narrow affair tucked away behind an overgrown piece of hedge..... and so down into Cartmel.
Here we found a couple of handy benches within the grounds of the Priory where we stopped for a now rather belated lunch.

On one of the other benches we found a "Smart" phone left by a previous visitor. We handed it in to the Priory staff.
Lunch over we visited (briefly) the other main attraction of this pretty village. The famous racecourse.

Be honest ! Would YOU place a bet with any of this dodgy bunch ?

Off again to tackle Hamps Fell the objective of our days walk, passing as we went the famous "ENCLUME" restaurant which had that very day been relegated to "Second" best restaurant in England.

Didn't look much but as we had not visited Fort Knox recently we did not linger !

As we left the village a sign told us the way and was perhaps a little portentous.

By the time we reached the top of Hamps Fell at least one of our walkers felt the need of a hospice (me).

Crossing the fields before the steep climb up to

Hamps Fell.

As we climbed we found evidence of others who had found this walk somewhat challenging !!!! We were actually quite surprised at how steep the climb up this relatively minor fell was and here we are taking a completely necessary "Breather".

From the top of the fell the views were quite breath taking ('ang on - your breaths had already been taken hadn't they ?) The glittering wetness of Morecambe bay sparkled in the afternoon sunshine and the hills of the Lake District gave an almost poetically blue backdrop.

At last the steep fell side gave way to a broad flat stretch of moorland

and a left turn took us much more gently up towards the Hospice itself.

The Hospice can just be seen to the right on the horizon. After a further brief wait to catch our breaths we arrived at the Hospice.

Super fit John R immediately climbed the rather steep and slippery steps to the top.

In spite of the sunshine there was a chill, stiff breeze blowing and we took shelter inside the Hospice (It's declared purpose) to finish our flasks. Here Martin produced an information sheet he had brought from home and regaled us with information about the building of the Hospice, it's benefactor and other details of it's history.

Leaving the Hospice we soon crossed the flat moorland before beginning the long descent down to Grange. Down, down, down we went with knees painfully registering every step.

As we dropped down we passed through a piece of land which was littered with ant hills

After a seemingly endless descent we arrived at the main street of Grange and then a short drop took us to the promenade. NO IT DIDN'T ! The level crossing taking us over the railway track was locked and chained and we had to divert to an underpass some distance back towards the town. AT LAST we had arrived at sea level. Knees breathed a sigh of relief ! It was now impossible to go DOWN any further. It was now just a steady, lengthy plod back to the cars.

On the way we found our second lost object . A rather good cycling helmet had been left on a bench. We put it in a more prominent place in the hope that it's owner would return.

Back at the cars the ever ready shandies (Thanks Martin) were even more welcome than usual. It had been quite a challenging walk .The planned 6.5 miles had become more close to 9 + . A tough walk but one filled with interest.

Unused Photos :-