Lake District Trek Day 4 Buttermere to Rosthwaite

It was our penultimate day today and the weather forecast was not good until mid-afternoon. We were staying at the Bridge Hotel in Buttermere, jolly nice room and good beer and food last night. Good breakfast too to set us on our way this morning.

It stayed dry for the first 40 minutes or so, then we had very heavy rain for 15 minutes, just long enough for us to put full waterproofs on. The rest of the day was dry with sunny spells from midday. So much for the forecast for rain showers all day!

It was very peaceful walking along beside Buttermere Lake, we didn’t see anyone until we reached the other end of the lake.

We started up the steep main ridge of Fleetwith Pike from the road and made good time, passing a couple on the way up. I’ve been up by this route a few times before but I always like the steep rocky bits, you can get into a sort of rhythm on them.

Jolly good views at the top. Chatting to the couple that we passed when they reached the top, the woman worked in Macclesfield just 10 miles from home! Small world.

Lots of sunny spells as we made our way across to Honister Slate Mine. We refrained from using the zip wire for fear of being disqualified from our trek and walked down.

We originally planned to go straight down to Rosthwaite, our stop for the night. As it was early we changed our minds and headed for Stonethwaite. The Langstrath Inn is open all day and always has good beer. From there it was just 1.5 miles along to Rosthwaite but it was still early so we dashed in to the Scafell Hotel, next door to our hotel. The last time I can remember being in here was on my first Coast to Coast trek in 1979. They had 6 real Ales on today so well worth the visit.

The Royal Oak Hotel was a little bit different to our other hotels. We booked dinner, b&b for a change. Our 4 course Dinner started at 7.30pm. Quite a few of the others were walking Wainwright’s Coast to Coast so a lot of others were staying just one night. We couldn’t get in to the Scafell or Langstrath because of it being just a 1 night booking.

The bar area was very small with just 1 real ale and a keg beer. It was local beer from near Ullswater but not my favourite. The meal was excellent and they catered very well for my allergies.

After the meal we ran next door to the Scafell in the rain for a couple of nightcaps, of the Snecklifter variety!

Last day tomorrow. We walk up to Watendlath Tarn then over 3 peaks to Castlerigg stone circle and back to the Horse and Farrier in Threlkeld to finish.