Ullock Pike, Long Side, Carl Side

Well, we’ve arrived in the Lake District for our holiday. We got here at about 2pm and met the lady that we’re renting our cottage from. It is absolutely amazing, so cosy and clean, just like home from home. It’s also perfect for Molly as we can use the main houses utility room (which backs onto their house and our cottage) to wash Molly’s paws and dry her off if she gets really dirty. Plus we can put any dirty, wet clothes in their to dry and keep our boots in there as well.

As we got here so early, we decided to go for a walk seen as the weather was so nice. Niki picked a walk from the OS map and decided to go for Ullock Pike and Long Side. We went down the road from our cottage and picked up the public footpath. My god it was so steep!!! It was pretty relentless too, just a very, very steep up…..constantly!

We eventually veered right onto another path to head towards Ullock Pike itself. Here the wind picked up dramatically and I started to wonder if we should continue, but we pressed on with a view to reassessing further up. The path itself consisted of some scrambling up some small rock faces but Molly seemed to manage fine. At one point we thought we were near to the top, but when we reached the peak we realised that there was still a small climb to go. When we got to the top, quite strangely the wind subsided which I couldn’t really understand.

Then we saw Long Side with its small ridge path and I must admit I was a bit nervous about taking the path in such strong winds. But as we actually got on the path it wasn’t as narrow and nerve racking as it appeared from a distance. We soon got to the cairn of Long Side and popped a stone on each. At this point in time we realised how close we were to Carl Side (we could see it in the distance and it really wasn’t very far) so we decided to carry on.

We went walked up the grassy slope to Carl Side and the wind was absolutely horrendous. We could literally lean into the wind, so we took a few pictures and quickly made our way back towards Long Side to try and get out of the wind.




We followed exactly the same path back as we had taken on the way there, and I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was more tired but the wind just seemed so much worse. A slow steady trek back with a stop on the way to eat a banana and we reached the road again in about an hour.

Molly absolutely loved it. In fact the windier and the steeper it is, I think the more she enjoys it.

We also thoroughly enjoyed our first walk of our holiday. We’re finally here and making the most of this beautiful scenery.