Pasture, pizza and back to the pub: Askham Fell and Lowther Estate walk

Walk: Lowther Castle Loop, Askham, Cumbria

Start/finish: The Queen’s Head, Penrith, Cumbria 

Distance: 7.5 miles / 12km. 

Challenge level: Moderate. 

Detailed directions below.

After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we left The Queen’s Head in Askham and headed for the hills. On a classic Cumbrian spring day, the Lakeland landscape dazzled with contrasts: daffodils bright along old stone walls, whitewashed cottages gleaming against the fells, sunshine and cloud vying for the skies. 

 

Our walk followed the Lowther Castle loop, one of several waymarked routes exploring the fields, fells and woodland of the eponymous 2,000-hectare former country house estate, now part of an extensive conservation and rewilding project. The walk can also link with the Ullswater Way, a 20-mile circumambulation of Ullswater, which lies to the west of Askham. 

Leaving the village, a stony track climbed through gorse-speckled grassland to Ringingleys Top, crowned with a copse of sycamore, ash and hawthorn. Cresting the hill, the fells unfurled below – back the way we’d come to Askham; across the moors to Arthur’s Pike and Loadpot Hill; out along the length of Ullswater, mighty Helvellyn and the Eastern Fells brooding beyond. 

The path descended steeply to a cairn marking a crossroads, where we decided to make the short detour to explore the Cockpit stone circle on Tarn Moor. Dating from the Bronze Age, this extraordinary enclosure measures 28 metres across, the tallest of its 75 stones standing almost a metre high. As we stood at its centre, sheltered in a lee of the land, a rainbow appeared over Askham, bright colours against a gunmetal sky.  

Cairns and standing stones dotted our onward route, weaving past shaggy-maned ponies, skylarks rising from the heather to fill the air with their song. From the edge of the fell, paths wound down through stone-walled fields into the sheltered valley of the River Lowther. Vibrant with freshly leafed trees, sunny primroses and cowslips, and the year’s first lambs, spring was well under way here. Ambling along the water’s edge, we passed patches of gnawed and felled trees – evidence of the locally reintroduced beavers. 

 

At Whale, with its pretty wooden footbridge over the stream at Millkeld Sike, we met a farmer settling in a herd of young longhorn cattle. Along with the ponies and beavers, these gentle beasts are an important part of the estate’s conservation strategy, creating a diverse range of habitats including wetlands, wildflower meadows, woodlands and scrub. At Crookwath Bridge we crossed into a former deer park, carefully fenced to protect plantations of young trees. With the late morning sun now winning over the clouds, families, dog walkers and runners were all out enjoying the trails. 

The path traced the course of the river through birch woodland heady with wild garlic, emerging onto the main street through Askham. We made our way through the village, passing the grand gates at Askham Hall, built as a fortified peel tower in the 14th century. Now a Grade I-listed mansion owned by the Lowther family, the hall houses a boutique hotel and the Michelin-starred Allium restaurant. 

Back at the Queen’s Head, we crowded into the bar, cosy and welcoming with wood-fired pizzas on the lunch menu. This, everyone agreed, was the perfect finish to a delightful spring walk. 

Directions

Follows waymarked Lowther Castle route for the most part, with some deviations.  

• From The Queen’s Head cross main road, following lane uphill through village.
• Go through two gates, climbing on grassy path to trees at top of Heugh Scar Hill.
• Turn left, following path downhill to cairn and straight over junction on to Cockpit stone circle.
• Retrace steps, bearing right at junction, then right again onto main track across fell.
• Pass prominent Cop Stone and bear left, downhill to lane.
• Turn left, following lane into Helton.
• Turn right in Helton following lane to track on left signed Lowther Castle Loop. Follow this downhill, crossing onto bridleway between fields.
• Turn left before River Lowther and left again over small footbridge. Follow footpath alongside river, through several gates to road.
• Turn right on road crossing Crookwath Bridge, then immediately left through gate onto path through deer park. Continue into woodland, then leave Lowther Castle Loop, bearing left on riverside path downhill to road at Askham Bridge.
• Turn left, cross the bridge and follow road up through Askham back to The Queen’s Head.      

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