This summit was activated by me, accompanied by Marianne, Jimmy & Liam on Tuesday 28th October 2003.   

We were staying at the Hilton Lodore hotel by Derwent Water near Keswick.  Despite assurances that SOTA activity would not be tolerated on this short family break, "She Who Must Be Obeyed" hinted at a slight willingness to do a little walking on the eve of our journey up, and so the equipment was packed.  Following recommendations from John G3WGV, I decided to climb Lord's Seat.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get back to John for route advice ahead of our journey north, and on inspection of the OS map I managed to completely miss the possibility of ascending through Whinlatter Forest Park from the car park and visitor centre at NY 207 245.  This was a pity as this would have been a gradual walk up good firm paths and tracks.  However, the route taken was lots of fun, albeit hard work!

We parked off-road opposite the Swan Hotel in Powter How NY 221 264.  To get there, we followed the A66 out of Keswick towards Cockermouth, turning onto the minor road through and signposted Thornthwaite.  From here we took the footpath up the edge of the forest, by Beckstones Gill.  This was pretty steep and tiring, but also very picturesque, particularly by the stream or as we zigzagged up the upper part of the forest.  At one point there was a particularly tricky scramble (for a family with two youngsters), followed by a bit of an edge that made my knees wobble just a bit, but we all safely negotiated this (in fact it was harder on the descent later).  Finally we exited the forest at NY 212 265, took the stepping stones over the stream and climbed to the summit of Barf (non-SOTA) and took a little breather and a few photographs, as we admired the view over Bassenthwaite Lake.

Next it was to press on in the gathering mist the final kilometre across boggy ground to the summit of Lord's Seat.  As the mist thickened, there were a couple of false summits, where we could not see beyond the imminent climb!  However, we were soon on the true summit, and the SOTA Beam and FT817 set up in the usual fashion.  Beaming towards the usual chasers was fruitless, probably due to the likes of Helvellyn and Scafell Pike between them and me!  Beaming northwards did the trick with three Scottish stations in rapid succession helping me to breathe a little more easily under the increasingly impatient stare of Marianne.   The next one was from Penrith, so must have been off the back or side of the beam.   After packing up, we followed the good forest path back down towards the Whinlatter Forest Park visitor centre, enjoying the lovely views over Bassenthwaite Lake and over towards Skiddaw.  Due to the position of the car, we then needed to head back on a lower track, meeting the steep route down close to where we earlier left the forest to ascend Barf.  A nice, but challenging day's walking!

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