Sunday, 6th September 2015

Walk:	Kentmere Horseshoe clockwise via Garburn Pass, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Thornthwaite Crag, Mardale Ill Bell, Harter Fell(Mardale), Kentmere Pike, Shipman Knotts. If you’re counting, this route includes 8 Wainwrights, 6 Hewitts, 6 Nuttalls, 9 Birketts, 2 HuMPs, 1 sub Marilyn and 2 deleted Nutalls, but if you’re not, it’s simply a lovely walk.
Start Point:	Kentmere, Maggs Howe Farm	Grid Reference:	NY 461 041
Distance:	13 miles	Ascent:	3,750 feet
Time:	7.25 hours
Weather:	A cold start in Kentmere, swiftly warming up as we climbed, resulting in a perfect late-summer day. Blue skies, slightly hazy views across the Lake District to the coast with bright sunshine and deep shadows. The merest breeze in the morning increased to be pleasantly cooling as we returned.
Comments:	The well-known Kentmere Horseshoe traverses all the fells bounding the Upper Kentmere Valley and its reservoir, which was dammed in 1848 to provide water for a gunpowder mill, snuff mill and the James Cropper paper mill, Croppers still being the owners. The outward route is by good, but rough paths and today the weather was superb, albeit slightly hazy. Two recces had been cold and very windy with swiftly changing visibility. From Harter Fell, the homeward route was largely moorland, making a varied and enjoyable day, agreed by six Ramblers to have been exceptionally fortunate in the leader’s organisation of the weather, steering clear of the cloud which covered our home territory.