Walking Grasmere Coffin Route. Lake District Hiking. Rydal Cave. Dove Cottage. Rydal Mount. Nab Scar

Walking the famous Grasmere Coffin Route on a Cloudy and Rainy day !

[@DaveBartlett]

I think you have the reason for 'The Coffin Route' the wrong way around: It hails back to the days when neither Rydal nor Ambleside had a church with consecrated ground for a cemetery, (Grasmere itself has had a church since King Oswald of Northumbria founded one there in AD 642, and St Oswald's Church has been around since the 14th century,) so coffin bearers in mediaeval times would walk the 'corpse road' FROM Ambleside & Rydal TO St Oswald's in Grasmere: (I presume the walk from Langdale would have been more of a difficult task, having to carry the coffins over the top of Loughrigg Fell!) In those days St Oswald's also served as the parish church for Grasmere, Rydal and Langdale, and to this day, each of the three has its own separate gate into the churchyard. Of course the route will also have been walked in the direction you've tried, i.e. FROM Grasmere, but that would have been without the burden of the coffin! I think the "world's most ridiculously high bench" was intended for a purpose other than sitting on, hence its height. Consider what the original walkers of The Coffin Route were carrying, and realisation might suddenly dawn about what was intended to be rested on that bench (plus many more other such places, both wooden and stone, along the route!)

[@o.bsoutdoors3871]

Thank you for pointing that out Dave, we stand corrected😊. We were going on information we were told some time ago but good to get learn the facts👍

[@bernadettekilroy6912]

Can you please explain how you climbed into the cave!

[@MattDoesMountains]

Rydal Caves is class mate 👌👌

[@o.bsoutdoors3871]

Yeah, can't wait to see the episode of the Witcher they were filming there ! 👍

[@DaveBartlett]

@@o.bsoutdoors3871 Looks like we'll have to wait until November/December this year or even January next year for season 2 to hit Netflix. Incidentally, though I'm sure they won't mention this on 'The Witcher', Rydal Cave isn't actually a cave - it's the remains of a (now disused,) slate quarry. Still bloody impressive though: The acoustics in that place are incredible, and the myriad of colours on the 'ceiling' are a work of art in themselves.

[@o.bsoutdoors3871]

@@DaveBartlett will keep an eye out for the Witcher series, i am sure Rydal will look amazing on it. You are right it's such an impressive place, and didn't realise it was created by quarrying👍