The Troutbeck Tongue from Troutbeck

The Troutbeck Tongue is one of those perfect Wainwrights to bag when you’re staying near Ambleside or Glenridding, on your way there or on your way home. This route, from Troutbeck (near Limefitt Holiday Park) could take you a couple of hours but the rewards are more than one little Wainwright.

Is this walk for you?

This one suits anyone after a gentle half-day out rather than a big fell day. The climb onto the Tongue is short and grassy, so it’s forgiving for newer walkers or a family group, and the return along the beck and through Limefitt makes for an easy, reflective finish rather than a route that fights you all the way round.

The Troutbeck Tongue – My Story

The Tongue is only my 14th Wainwright, after Wansfell (from the higher road in Troutbeck) with my son Jack, the 9 on the solo Kentmere Horseshoe from Kentmere village – over the Garburn Pass, High Street via Riggindale with friend Gav, and then Sallows and Sour Howes walk my wife Teresa. I’m getting to a point where I’ve organised walks now that will clear the Far Eastern Fells area, not very intentionally, but I can feel a theme coming on. I’ll think on that and talk about it in another blog.

This spur from a much larger ridge full of larger mountains, is out there on it’s own. Who’s going to come down here from so high up to bag this baby? No, this route is the way.

So it’s time to take another family member out. My 13 year old step-daughter, Amber, has jumped in on the last minute to come out.

There’s a nice old pub called The Mortal Man for lunch before heading back to the van but as you’ll find, unfortunately, we won’t be doing this today. The original plan went to pot before we even started, more in a minute.

I’ve not spent so much time with Amber on our own for a few years so I’m looking forward to this hike. Not a crossed word today and I know exactly why by now, when you’re out for the day in such beautiful settings on your own with someone away from your job, family and the toils of life, in Amber’s case school, you can leave it all behind and just ‘be’. Each time I’ve been out with somebody up here we get on amazingly and have the best conversations, returning exhausted but revitalised.

So we drive 80 miles up to Troutbeck and as I turned into the layby at the side of the road in Troutbeck Town End, pulled up the hand brake, the van comes to a grinding halt – locked in gear, won’t even roll. Another Transit bites the dust! Of course, it can probably be fixed, but I don’t want the trouble any more, next time I come up here I’ll be in a lovely new van.

“What do we do now?” asks Amber.

“Get out, get our bags and start walking towards that hill over there.” I answer, pointing up the Troutbeck Valley, this will not ruin my day with my daughter and the hills. We’ll sort it out later.

The funny thing is that we walk down the lane we’ve just come up in the van (in first gear!) and down to the church, we could have parked down here. In fact I parked up to check the map but I wanted to be up in the village so the van was nearer to us if we descend Wansfell. We won’t be going anywhere near Wansfell summit now.

The route below starts where we should have parked, by the side of the road over from Limefitt Holiday Park. It’s actually quite a nice site to stay on if you have a thousand pounds to stay in a log cabin for the week, we end up staying in the summer. There’s nothing to do there other than drink in the inn but you’re in an excellent location, it’s minutes from Ambleside or Windermere if you’re in to that sort of thing.

Although we’ve not spoken more than a few words on the drive up here (well we did leave before 6:30 and kids aren’t that chatty at that time of the day) we’re finding something to talk about now – the gorgeous house on the way up this lane, the baby deer wandering around the garden at the bottom of the lane, this bloody dog pulling like crazy on the lead.

Lacey is a springer spaniel, two and a half years old and will not stop pulling. This isn’t so bad if you’re walking up hill but going down or as we are now or rounding the corner past the church and tramping along a country lane with no footpath it’s annoying, spoiling the walk a little. I wish we could let her off but she goes mental near sheep.

Ing Lane and the Roman Road

There’s a gap in the wall over the road with a “new” entrance to the field ‘avoiding road’ which will lead us to a boggy bridleway even in June, and down to Ing Lane, another country road. I can walk roads in Bolton!

Ing Lane – Etymology

‘Ing’ is a northern word for a low riverside meadow with possible Norse influence.

We persist with Ing Lane. It’s 3 miles and heading to the East of The Tongue. We cross a field with cows and a bull (is an orange coat ok?), up to a gate in the wall and find the path which will lead us to our climb.

If you’d rather avoid the cows and their male friend, go through the holiday park and past the inn. Our return will bring us to the back of the inn on a path that you would take.

As you look up at the Troutbeck Tongue you see it’s quite rocky. We keep east around the foot of the fell and then come to another gate. Before going through the gate I notice a foot bridge to our right, crossing the beck, that will be our return route.

Surprisingly there’s trodden grass up the hill, you see a beaten track weaving around the rocks.

Now here’s one of the sweetest parts of the day. We’re standing on Ing Bridge (best to give kids something to look at, the river, when you’re consulting a map) and, glancing up the slopes of Yoke, we both see at the same time a large golden brown coloured bird with a small head and hooked beak flying low following the beck South. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I think we’ve just spotted England’s only Golden Eagle! I’ll later learn that the male resident, who’s female partner disappeared in 2004, was last spotted in 2015! Carrying the camera in the day bag needs revising.

Troutbeck Tongue Summit views

Amber’s told her brothers that she’s going to beat me to the summit so she takes off. Little does she know that there’s a few hundred metres of ascent ahead of her, which is a good climb. Slippy in the rain, as it is doing today, we scramble up the stoney paths and grass slopes and climb the stile in the fence, throwing the dog over. The Troutbeck Tongue is not a big hill but it’s a really nice climb past the falsey up to the summit. We take a seat and find a good view of Windermere down the valley between Sour Howes and Wansfell. I’m glad we took a good look because we won’t see Windermere again today.

We get to the top and find the cute little cairn to sit for lunch. Usually you’ll see Wansfell to the West and Yoke to the East, with the ridge of the Kentmere Horseshoe following North behind you but we chose a day that would surround us in cloud, preventing us from seeing the peak of anything but where our feet lie. Although I jest about our intentions with regards the clouds there is something beautiful and eerie about being smothered in cloud.

Not a soul do we see up here and thanks to the mist we see no sign of any walker on any of the surrounding fells, although you can clearly see the road below Wansfell, leading into Kirkstone territory. After lunch and photographs (not easy getting a hyperactive dog in them), I see no other sensible way down the fell, we’re going to cross that foot bridge now and make our way back down the nice track, Longmire Road, to the Limefitt Inn.

High Street Roman Road

The 20km Roman highway from Ambleside to Brougham was right under our feet for a few miles on Ing Lane. It crosses Ing Bridge, as we did, but then follows Hagg Gill up the re-entrant, topping out over High Street (named after it’s longer counterpart). It’s legally protected as a Scheduled Monument.

I see, further up North another foot bridge where the two paths meet, a disused quarry that looks like it’s in need of an explore, maybe some stone shelters also but it’s another bit of unnecessary walking for us today and if there’s nothing there it’ll just drain energy form my companion, South we go.

Taking a better look at the map I notice that this bridleway is actually Longmire Road which leads up to Thornthwaite Crag and on to High Street. I mention this because as time goes by, and I work my way around these parts, the fells, tracks, tarns, etc. all link up like a puzzle, and paints for me one complete picture. It’s one of the nicest things about ‘doing’ the Wainwrights, you become very familiar with the whole.

We can keep Lacey off the lead this way now, no sheep. Our feet are soaked because we both only have breathable boots. I took Amber to get hers yesterday and thought that these would be best overall as she won’t be walking in rain much. I have breathable boots because the weather’s been fine and I find them good to run in, but when I have a walking partner I don’t do so much running, must buy some proper walking boots.

There are a number of streams coming down the slopes of Yoke and Sallows but we take a liking to a particular one (marked ‘Ford’ on the map) which is quite rocky and deep. there’s a concrete bridge crossing it, part of the track. As our feet are soaked Amber thinks it’s a great idea to take a paddle. ‘This is why Bear Grylls says it’s not advisable to drink from the mountain becks downstream’, she says. What fun, it’s freezing.

We put our wet feet in our wet boots and plod on. I don’t remember the last time she linked my arm and had so much fun together, although maybe she just needed holding up at this point as we’ll have covered 9 km by the time we get back. She’s done very well today, stayed motivated and been great company.

Further down there’s a section of the track surrounded by 6ft fences, and gates at either end. There must be deer here, or velociraptors. We see neither. Through the latter gate there’s a fork in the path, we take the right hand fork, down hill, which leads to the Inn at the holiday village. If you’re heading up to the village take the bridleway just before the church. This lovely enclosed track will take you up to Bridge Lane, avoiding the road and of course the cars and civilisation, squeezing that last 10 minutes of the wild out of the day.

NB. If the clutch goes in your van as you arrive, leave it, go have fun and deal with it later. Call recovery on the walk back, after letting your 13 year old daughter ‘steal’ your rice pudding. Go get hot chocolates and treats from the little shop up Bridge Lane, surprising her with something to make the wait easier. Throughout, keep in mind, your priority today – make your daughter happy and hike up a hill, how you get back is incidental.

Next I’ll be heading North with my school friend, Gav, to bag High Street, having missed it out of my Kentmere Horseshoe hike. Then I’ll be taking a stab at Helvellyn – which doesn’t end well.

2026 rEVISION

Since this blog was written, Amber has grown into a wonderful, kind hearted woman. She bought a house a couple of years ago with boyfriend Louis, and she cares for autistic adults. We get on like a house on fire. Not long ago, she reminded me of our day out saying ‘Remember that walk up that Troutbeck Tongue, I loved that day’.

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High Street with my school friend

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