Langstrath Dipping Possibilities

Y’see, I hadn’t forgotten about the pools of Langstrath. We now have a short hiatus or space in the Pieblog before we do more walkies this weekend (free guided walk from Westgate to Rookhope over the tops on Sunday starting at 10:00 c/o Weardale Wayfarers and lead by LTD, closely followed on the blunt end of the lead by Yours Truly – bring own egg and tomato butty)

Hennyway, below is a bunch of photographs of some pools which can be found in Langstrath. Langstrath is the rather beautiful side-dale of Borrowdale, accessed from Rosthwaite which has a car park and a pub, or there’s a bit of parking near the school.

There’s a moderately easy walk of around 8 miles which heads up the West side of Stonethwaite Beck as far as Tray Dub and returns to Rosthwaite after crossing the footbridge there by the Cumbria Way path on the East side of the beck. Route finding is pretty straightforward.

There are pools suitable for dipping,  some hugely deep and some fairly shallow, at various points on the walk. The star pool is Blackmoss Pot which some people will jump into from the rocks above. This is much too dangerous a prospect for me, though, I can tell you, and I would probably die almost immediately on sudden contact with the cold water. This  would probably spoil my day out completely.

Two of these pools – Galleny Force and Blackmoss Pot are listed in Daniel Start’s excellent book “Wild Swimming” available at all good bookshops and one or two bad ones.

Ideally, you’d want to wander up there on a warm day, maybe with a picnic,  or you might be heading towards Rosthwaite after a day on the fells, in which case a nice dip might well be Just The Thing. I am aware that some people do like to dip at any time of year and that some people may well feel over-dressed in a cozzie or in their undies or shorts, or whatever. I’d just point out that the footpaths are often very well populated with walkers so you might want to use some discretion about this.

Whatever is your desire, the deep, green pools of lovely, clear water are inviting and very “refreshing”.

Should you not be sufficiently wet after this plodge, there’s more pools available a bit further up the beck from Tray Dub