Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Skiddaw: ascent 1855


included in:-	Skiddaw, Underskiddaw
	Skiddaw: ascent 1855
site name:-	Skiddaw
civil parish:-	Underskiddaw (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-	Bassenthwaite (formerly Cumberland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	historic ascent

evidence:-	old text:- Martineau 1855 item:- horse
source data:-	Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76. goto source Page 90:- "ASCENT OF SKIDDAW." "The ascent of Skiddaw is easy, even for ladies, who have only to sit their ponies to find themselves at the top, after a ride of six miles. There must be a guide,- be the day ever so clear, and the path ever so plain. ..." "..." goto source Page 92:- "... Even in the mild ascent of green Skiddaw, then, there is a guide.- At the distance of half-a-mile from Keswick, on the Penrith road, just through the toll-bar, a bridge crosses the Greta. The road, after crossing this bridge, winds round Latrigg, and in the direction of Low Man, crossing the barren plain called Skiddaw Forest. The plain of Keswick, and the lake and its islands, grow smaller and smaller, and the surrounding mountains seem to swell and rise, as the road gently climbs the side of Skiddaw; and, when about half way up, that lower world disappears, while a more distant one comes into view. The Irish Sea and the Isle of Man rise, and the Scotch mountains show themselves marshalled on the horizon. At the first summit, after a mile of craggy ascent, steeper than the rest, the city of Carlisle comes into view, with the coast and its little towns, round to St. Bees, with the rich plains that lie between. But there is a higher point to be reached, after an ascent of 500 feet more; and here Derwentwater comes into view again. And how much besides! Few lakes are seen; but the sea of mountain tops is glorious; and the surrounding plains; and the ocean beyond; and land again beyond that. In opposite directions, lie visible, Lancaster Castle and the hills of Kirkcudbright, Wigton and" goto source Page 93:- "Dumfries. Lancaster Castle and Carlisle Cathedral in the same landscape! and Snowdon and Criffel nodding to each other! Ingleborough, in Yorkshire, looking at Skiddaw over the whole of Westmorland that lies between; with the Isle of Man as a resting place for the glance on its way to Ireland! St. Bees Head, with the noiseless waves dashing against the red rocks, being almost within reach as it were! And, as for Scawfell, Helvellyn, and Saddleback, they stand up like comrades, close round about. Charles Lamb was no great lover of mountains: but he enjoyed what he saw here. "O! its fine black head," he wrote of Skiddaw, "and the bleak air atop of it, with a prospect of mountains all about and about, making you giddy; and then, Scotland afar off, and the border countries, so famous in song and ballad! It is a day that will stand out like a mountain, I am sure, in my life!" "Bleak" the air is indeed "atop," - exposed as the summit is to the seawinds. If the stranger desires to take a leisurely view, he must trouble his guide or his pony with a railway wrapper, or something of the sort, to enable him to stand his ground. The descent may be made, for the sake of variety, by a road through Milbeck and the pretty village of Applethwaite; or by descending the north side of the mountain, and coming out upon the road, just north of the village of Bassenthwaite."

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