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After having a few days of tramping along perilous paths with steep slopes and scrambling up large boulders thousands of feet from sea level, I’d had my fill of heights and decided it would be time to do some nice, friendly, low level walking. Having been to this part of the world many times, it was a crime that we had not yet done the coffin road.
The coffin road is called thus as it was used to carry coffins to St Oswalds in Grasmere, for burial in consecrated ground. This means it should be a wide track that is flat and easy underfoot. Perfect.
We started this walk from Rydal car park and followed and initially steep path to reach the trail itself. Once on, it’s hard to go wrong. The route plods on through beautiful woodland, occasionally clearing out to pasture where stunning views of Rydal water can be enjoyed.
We met many gaggling groups of aging walkers along this route. We knew we wouldn’t beat any walking speed records today, so we kicked our feet and leisurely followed the path, taking in the eclectic mix of bird song until we came out at the grand Rydal Hall. Having no time constraints, we wandered around the Hall’s grounds.
Making our way back to Rydal water, we cut through St Mary’s Church only to find another unexpected soul. This one must have been a bit lost. A doe deer had managed to squeeze through the fence to munch on the sweeter grass of the churchyard, only to be disturbed by us entering. We stood motionless as we let the flighty creature run right by us a few times in search of the exit. Realising we were only alarming the animal, we decided to quietly walk through to the exit by Badger Bar and the road, feeling lucky to have experienced a few close ups of a beautiful, wild animal.
We crossed the road here and walked over the bridge to complete our loop from the other side of Rydal Water. Reaching the end, yet wanting to carry on walking, we extended the walk along Rothay river as if going on to Grasmere. This route was a procession of smooth stones and owing to the frost of the previous night (and being in shadow most of the morning) these stones were quite slippery. Extra care was taken.
We crossed the river again just before reaching Grasmere and made our way back to the car park along the other side of the river.
