Here’s Patty Sunday morning in front of The Villa Levens, looking for someone to push her.  We would soon be checking out and driving to just beyond Grange-over-Sands to hike up to the Hampsfell Hospice, a small travelers shelter that stands on a hill between Grange-over-Sands and Cartmel.  From there, we would hike down into the village of Cartmel. to have a drink and taste their famous Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Here is the path we took that morning.  From where we parked, we first hiked north up the hill to the Hampsfell Hospice, then south and west down to the village of Cartmel, then back to our car that was parked just above Grange-over-Sands.  The total distance was 4.22 miles, with an ascent of 425 ft, and we did it in 3 hours and 50 minutes.

This is as we were climbing up to the Hampsfell Hospice.  The view is looking east, over the mouth of the River Kent, and over to Arnside Knott.

A nice looking couple.

“Why don’t I get Sticky Toffee Pudding?”

The Hampsfell Hospice was built in or before 1834.

View looking east, out the opening to the Hampsfell Hospice, pointing to catch the sunrise.

This was the view looking west as we retraced our steps to the start of a trail that leads down to the village of Cartmel, which you see in the valley.  The woods beyond Cartmel on the right, and the bare mound that stands above the woods, is called the Hill Mill Coppice.  Coppicing is a form of regenerating woodland management where certain species of trees are cut down only to the stump, and then the shoots that appear are allowed to grow into useful timber before harvesting.  This practice also simulates biodiversity in the local environment.  The body of water beyond the mound is the mouth of the River Leven, which comes in from the right.  The town on the far side of the river is Ulverston, nearly 7 miles away.  Furness Abbey, which we visited on Day 9, is about 12 miles away, slightly to left of center.

This is looking east (my ‘lone tree’ photo), on our way back down the trail, before turning west towards Cartmel.  The mouth of the River Kent is on the left, and the rise on the other side is Arnside Knott, which we hiked on Day 3.  Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about the sheep.

This was the path leading down to Cartmel.  The large building in the center of town is the Cartmel Priory.  Here is the link to Cartmel on Googlemaps.

The Cartmel Priory was established by a community of Augustinian Canons Regular in the year 1190.  The Priory lasted 346 years, before it was surrendered as part of the English Reformation in 1536.  The Priory currently serves as an Anglican parish church.

Impressive.

As we got into Cartmel, we stopped first at the Kings Arms to have a cider.  Then we went over to the Cartmel Village Shop for the main course, Sticky Toffee Pudding.

While we were in Cartmel, we stopped by a local Craft Fair, and I was impressed by some beautiful photography work by Ray Etchells Photography.  His ‘Lone Tree’ photos were stunning.  We also walked by the Cartmel Racecourse, where twice a year they’ve been having horse races since at least 1856.

On the way out of town, I stopped to smell the, er, flowers.

That’s the hill we came down from the Hampsfell Hospice.

The Cartmel Races would have been a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, we missed them by a couple of weeks.

From Cartmel, Mary drove us to Kendal, to visit the ruins of Kendal Castle.  Here is the link to the Visit-Kendal website.

Signage.

The Great Hall on the left.

The Great Hall, from across the way.

The view looking west down at Kendal, through the broken wall.

Also looking west down at Kendal.

From Kendal, we drove to the Tea Room at Low Sizergh Barn to grab a snack.

Then we returned to The Villa Levens, and we got ready to meet Mary’s uncle for dinner (Our room was the top right – very nice!).

Relaxing on the patio at The Villa Levens.

We had dinner at Crooklands Inn, a farmhouse dating back to the mid 1700’s.  It was an excellent meal!  In case you can’t find it, it’s right here.