Skip to content

Walk Diary — Keswick, Portinscale, Braithwaite and round Derwentwater

Where the dogs went, day by day

On every walk I take photos and short videos of the dogs and send the full set to their owners the same day. This is a selection, newest first, so you can see what a weekday out with Fell & Fetch actually looks like: the fell, the shore, the weather and the mud.

Nothing under Saturday or Sunday, because there are no walks on Saturday or Sunday. If you're reading this at the weekend, the top entry is Friday's.

Latrigg

Six out. Dry till eleven, then it came in wet on the way down and nobody cared but me.

Group walk. Full set of photos and three short videos sent to owners this afternoon.

Six dogs scrambling up a steep wet fell path towards the camera under low grey cloud
Latrigg, Wednesday — short video, the six-dog scramble up the steep bit
Dogs strung out along a grassy summit path with a town and grey lake far below
Latrigg, Wednesday — the top path, Keswick and the lake underneath
A wet scruffy dog sitting on a muddy path in drizzle, looking up at the camera
Latrigg, Wednesday — eleven o'clock, as forecast
Muddy dogs waiting in a bunch at a wooden gate on a wet stony track
Latrigg, Wednesday — waiting at the gate on the way down, nobody pushing

Derwentwater, west shore

Five out. Flat calm, cloud on the tops, and the shallows were too much to resist for three of them.

Group walk. Photos and two short videos sent to owners by teatime.

Three dogs splashing through the shallows of a flat grey lake with cloud on the far fell
Derwentwater, Tuesday — short video, the shallows winning
A soaked dog shaking water off its coat on a shingle shoreline beside a flat grey lake
Derwentwater, Tuesday — the shake, taken too close
A wet dog standing at the end of a wooden landing stage looking across a flat grey lake
Derwentwater, Tuesday — the landing stage, having a think
Dogs trotting ahead along a tree-lined lakeshore path with the grey lake showing between the trunks
Derwentwater, Tuesday — shore path back towards Portinscale, leaves down

Up from Braithwaite

Four out. Cloud right down on the track, so we kept to the low path and nobody saw a view. Nobody missed it.

Group walk. Photos and one short video sent to owners by teatime.

Four dogs on a wet stony track fading into thick grey cloud beside a drystone wall
Up from Braithwaite, Monday — the track into the cloud
A brindle dog standing belly-deep in a brown puddle on a rutted track
Up from Braithwaite, Monday — found the one puddle
Three dogs pushing through chest-high autumn bracken on a steep slope, only heads and tails showing
Up from Braithwaite, Monday — short video, bracken up to their ears

Owners get the whole set, not the selection. If you'd like to know what it costs and how the dogs get there and back, the Walks page has it straight.

Out on the fells and by the lake

Where the dogs actually go on a weekday: open fell above Keswick, and the shore paths round Derwentwater. Left as the phone took them, mud and cloud included, so you know what your dog is coming home from.

On the fells

Grass, stone and bracken, usually wet. The cloud sits on the tops more mornings than not, so the group stays close and I can count six at a glance.

Five dogs scattered across a wet open fellside of grass and bracken under low heavy cloud
Open fell above Keswick — five spread out, all in sight
A dog's four mud-caked legs on a wet grey stone path, seen from directly above
Fell path — this is what the towel in the van is for
A grassy ridge path under an overcast sky with four dogs running towards the camera.
Ridge path — running along the trail, mostly

By the lake

Shore paths round Derwentwater, shingle and the shallows. Dogs that swim will swim. Dogs that don't get a dry walk and a good look at the ones that do.

A shaggy grey dog shaking off on a pebble shoreline with a flat pewter lake and a silver break of light behind
Derwentwater shore — out of the water and straight into the shake
Wet pebbles at a lake edge with shallow water lapping over them and a dog's paws standing in it
Shingle — paddling depth, for the ones that won't swim
Three dogs walking along a stony lake edge under a flat grey lake and sky with a wooded point beyond
Derwentwater, west shore — flat calm, the usual colour

Solo outings: one dog, and the path to itself

Solo walks are for dogs that don't get on with others. They get the same fells and shore, just quieter, and the owners get the same photos and videos at the end of it. A solo morning in the diary looks like this.

A wet brown and white border collie standing on a stony lakeshore path, looking back at the camera, with a loose lead on the ground and misty water and hills in the background under an overcast sky.
Derwentwater — a wet dog standing on the shore with nobody else around
A single dog standing still at the edge of quiet woodland with its lead hanging slack
Woodland edge near Portinscale, solo — stopped to listen, no hurry

If your dog needs the path to itself, say so when you ask. I'll tell you straight whether I've a solo slot on your weekdays, and the photos come back the same way they do for the group.

Ask about space on your days How solo walks run