Tongue Pot Eskdale
Alongside our popular guided walks to Scafell Pike, we offer multi-activity days in the Lake District via our Mountain Journeys website. As well as many other walking routes, we can provide: Rock climbing; Scrambling; Abseiling; Adventure Days; Navigation training; Gorge scrambling; and Canyoning.
A recent enquiry led us to have a revisit of one of our favourite venues, the Esk gorge. The biggest and best gorge trip in the Lake District, by far. Well that is quite a claim. It's not like we're short on gorges in this part of the world.
What Makes the Esk the best?
The long, but gentle approach walk of around 45 minutes leads to a place of real tranquility, and wilderness.
The pools are all crystal clear, and most are very deep.
Large, deep pools make for much safer jumping.
The jumps are big, some are very big!!
Even in a drought (yes it does occasionally happen, even in Cumbria) there will be plenty water in the Esk.
On a warm summers day it's easy to forget this is Cumbria, it really can feel like a Caribbean paradise. Well, this is paradise too you know.
And very close by there's Lingcove Beck too, should the Esk not be enough. This also has beautiful clear pools and cascading waterfalls.
As an activity venue it offers many possibilities, and getting the time to explore these can be difficult. This week we made the effort and the yield was good.
Not only did we find, set up, and test a brilliant and exhilarating Tyrollean traverse across the gorge. We also found a stunning abseil location, the best I've ever seen!
Anyone who's been gorge scrambling or canyoning will know that standing around waiting is not a good thing as likely you're soaking wet so will become cold quickly. So these additional offerings we have found have been chosen specifically with that in mind. So not only are they in stunning locations, you won't be waiting long until it's your turn...are you ready for the adventure?
A little more about the Esk and its humble origins:
High up above the Great Moss in Upper Eskdale there are many small streams cascading down from the mountains, mostly from the Scafell range. These small streams by themselves seem so insignificant, but gather them all together in the Great Moss and these turn into the mighty Esk. The main source is Calfcove Gill which I ran passed yesterday. A babbling brook of crystal clear waters that were very welcome to a tired and thirsty runner, I drank freely from a cascade and it was delicious. Calfcove Gill is pictured at the bottom of this blog post.
For more information about any of our activities, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We really do love chatting about the mountains and sharing what we know with you.
Thanks for reading
Mark
