Finsthwaite High & Low Dams

Today's our 8th wedding anniversary! To help us celebrate, we'd arranged for my parents to join us at the little village of Finsthwaite, a couple of miles or so from Newby Bridge at the bottom of Lake Windermere.

Back in 1978, Dad was a leader in the scouts, and had helped organise their summer camp in a field just behind the village. We were back to see whether we could remember the campsite and also retrace a walk up through the woods to two nearby tarns, Low Dam and, just beyond, High Dam.

The walk uphill wasn't too difficult and the lakes at the top were worth a visit. Although Low Dam is quite small lake, High Dam is a reasonable size and the walk all the way round is about a mile and a half. The weather was a little unpredictable, with sunshine one minute then hail the next. But we made it round without getting too wet, and managed to take plenty pictures along the way.

Back at the cars near Finsthwaite church, we stopped for a packed lunch, then started part two of our walk, through some more woods for another mile or so down to the landing stage at Lakeside, where the first floor cafe looking out across the lake was too tempting to miss. After watching the ferry come in, then the steam train depart, we headed back to Finstwaite, this time taking a steep path up through the trees and back to the cars.

We found somewhere to eat on the main road from Newby Bridge to Ulverston, rounding off another excellent day.