ACROSS LAKELAND - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 35

atmosphere, though none of the surrounding heights presents its best profile to the
lonely lake. T.S. Tschiffeley, in his Bridle Paths Through England , said of Grisedale Tarn
that it 'brought back memories of the highlands of Bolivia and Peru'. Perhaps it did, for
it is a fine jewel in a fine crown, on a still evening faithfully mirroring the surrounding
hills.
There is a legend about Grisedale Tarn that into it Duvenald (corrupted to Dunmail),
King of Strathclyde, of which north Cumbria was a part, cast his crown, ceremoniously
rejecting his insignia of royalty before taking to the pilgrim's staff. Some claim that
Dunmail lies buried, slain by Saxons, beneath the cairn at the head of the nearby pass
that bears his name. Alas, reality, as ever, destroys the myth, for it is known he died
peacefully in bed in Rome. Around this legend Graham Sutton, author of a number of
novels about Lakeland, spun a chilling short story entitled Dusk below Helvellyn .
From Grisedale Hause descend a stony path to cross the outflow of the
tarn and traverse half-left to begin the descent into the long reaches of
Grisedale.
A number of paths lead away from the outflow of the tarn to a large cairn
at the start of the descent. Make for this and then pursue the downward
trail, rocky underfoot but never in doubt, as far as the ruins of Ruthwaite
Lodge.
RUTHWAITE LODGE
After only a few minutes descent it is possible to deviate right for a moment to visit
'Brothers Parting', where one of Wordsworth's poems (all but illegible now) is carved
in a rock tablet, commemorating the Lakeland parting of Wordsworth from his brother
John, captain of the Earl of Abergavenny , in which he perished in 1805.
Ruthwaite Lodge
Ruthwaite Lodge, once a shooting hut and later the property of the Sheffield
University Climbing Club, for a long time lay in fire-razed ruins on a sheltered plateau
beneath Nethermost Cove. Now, however, it has been restored and dedicated to the
memory of two instructors from Outward Bound Ullswater, who perished on the slopes
of Mount Cook in New Zealand in 1988.