Monday 8 February 2016

A Grey Day at Glenridding, Ullswater

Glenridding village February 2016


I nearly added to the waters that have recently flooded the village of Glenridding when I visited there last Saturday.  I had to fight back the tears for it is a place I have spent innumerable happy days camping and walking across the fells over the past 25 years.  I now live only a few miles away and it was my first visit of the New Year, having last been there at the end of November before the series of storms that have inflicted so much devastation on this beautiful place.  Despite seeing the pictures of the television, I wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted me and this, after the initial clean-up operations have taken place.

The weather was in keeping with the scene in the village and with my feelings. The beck, noisy and agitated, rushed past the houses and shops and boarded-up Tourist Information Centre. Grey clouds clung to the tops of the fells and emptied themselves into the lake, further swelling its waters. So many of my memories of Ullswater are of a tranquil lake, often mirror-like, reflecting the surrounding fells on its surface.
True, I have also seen it during previous winters in wind and rain, but I have never before seen it in this angry, gloomy mood.  It had grown in depth and width following the series of storms and rain and its waters seemed to be lapping menacingly at the edges and perimeters of everything – lake shore, fields, boat houses, road.  Steel-grey seemed to be the colour that pervaded everywhere; skies, water, road, soaked slate walls and buildings, steel barriers, heaps of stone and rubble, bedraggled trees. 

Memories of happy times flooded my mind – days spent around the village, in and out of the shops, sitting on the wall beside the beck, walking along the path out to the campsite, to Lanty’s Tarn or to begin the climb up to ‘the hole in the wall’ and onto Striding Edge.  I saw those summer evenings again, walking to the pub after conquering Helvellyn, Place Fell, Catstycam, Sheffield Pike, St Sunday Crag, to name but a few, eager for a cold lager and a good meal.  I saw the days spent walking along the path beside the lake and taking my boots and socks off to have my feet refreshed by the cold waters.  The place has soaked into me over the years and on Saturday, it felt as though I was witnessing a calamity that had befallen an old, dear friend. 

Glenridding from nearby fells in sunnier days

It will take a while to rebuild and re-gain strength but in the meantime, I wish it well and will visit regularly.  It will recover again, open all its doors, brim with life, sparkle like the  little gem of a village that it is, nestled among the fells near the shores of lovely Ullswater.  

Ullswater taken looking towards Glenridding end of the lake

 

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