Colwith Force, Lake District, Autumn
The last of the summer holidays.
The last of the summer holidays.
After a lovely Friday evening in Dentdale, and a glorious Saturday in Kingsdale, we returned to the Lake District on Sunday for a hike to Colwith Force and back.
The weekend saw the advent of a heatwave settling over the British Isles. To counter, we head to Skelwith Bridge early in the morning for cooler conditions and before the majority of summer holidayers were about.
We were rewarded with beautifully moody, misty conditions to start, then as the temperatures rose the mist burned off, swirling around the fell tops and creating dramatic scenery. Just perfection.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony FE 28–70mm f3.5–5.6 OSS zoom and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC ultra-wide prime lenses. RAWs developed in Lightroom using RNI Films’ Kodachrome film profiles, finalised in Photoshop.
Colwith Force, Lake District, Autumn by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Typically, we start the walk to Colwith Force from Skelwith Bridge. From here we cross the River Brathay and head west. But before crossing the river, we can never resist getting up close and personal with the beautiful Skelwith Force.
Looking upstream from Skelwith Force. You can just about make out the bridge that takes you across the river.
Up and out of the woods around Skelwith Force, we head west where the views started to open up. Well, to a degree. Early morning fog clung to the fell tops, making for moody images.
Looking back down the route we came up. You can just about make out the knuckly profile of Loughrigg but nothing beyond.
After navigating a series of narrow footpaths punctuated with tight kissing gates and stiles, the trail starts to head back down Little Langdale. But before we do, this magnificent composition demands your attention: Wetherlam (763 m/2,502 ft) fighting the swirling mist as the morning sun burns it all off.
Down at the valley bottom we entered Tongue Intake Plantation and picked our way up through the woods to find our main goal for the day: Colwith Force, a double spout waterfall. Evidence of the approach of autumn is all around us.
Some people simply turn around and head back, but we’re fans of following the trail as it ascends up and above the waterfall. From above it, interesting compositions can be found of all the falls before the main double spout.
Though a little dry this time, there’s a lovely series of falls above Colwith Force that deserve attention.
Beyond the upper falls we followed the circular trail back out of the plantation and sought the Little Langdale road back towards Skelwith Bridge. Emerging from the woods, the fells were now clear of the morning mist, revealing their autumnal coats.
Just goes to show the massive difference a change of light conditions can do to the mood and feel of a photograph. Loughrigg and the Grasmere fells beyond, now clearly visible.
Herdwick yows (ewes) and their lambs peacefully graze in the now gorgeous autumnal morning sun. A timeless scene.
Nearing Skelwith Bridge, we could finally see the Langdale Pikes after being consumed by the fog all morning.
Did you enjoy these photos?
Colwith Force, Lake District, Summer/Autumn
The sweltering heat of July is giving way to the rain and thunder of August.
The sweltering heat of July is giving way to the rain and thunder of August.
A lot of this week—especially in Cumbria—has consisted of heavy downpours, with some lightning thrown in for good measure. This has made getting out for some solid hiking rather difficult.
Today, after a washed out Saturday, we decided to throw caution to the wind and head into the Lake District first thing to get some steps in, and maybe some photos too while we’re at it.
Given all the rain we’ve had, we decided to visit Colwith Force from Skelwith Bridge again, because this gorgeous twin-falls is beautiful after lots of rain. By the time we reached the upper section of Colwith Force, the rain really started to come down hard. We walked the rest of the route out of the woods that houses the waterfall, and followed the road back to Skelwith Bridge, getting progressively more damp and sodden as we did.
All photos shot on a Fujifilm X-T2 with a Fujinon XF 18–55mm f/2.8–4.0 lens using a customised Classic Chrome film profile.
Loughrigg Fell (335 m/1,099 ft) is already turning a rusty red. Autumn is coming.
Autumn is by far my favourite season, so seeing all the ferns turn orange and red is a happy sign for me.
A misty moody shot of the Langdale Pikes tussling with the rain.
The Lake District is home to some ridiculously quaint and pretty cottages.
This is Tutsan or Shrubby St. John's Wort (Hypericum androsaemum). As the berries contain hypericin they are toxic to humans, causing nausea and diarrhoea if ingested.
The way to the woods that houses Colwith Force. In the distance the Tilberthwaite fells are obscured by the incoming rain.
Everything was looking particularly lush in the rain.
The twin-falls of Colwith Force, positively roaring with power.
The upper section of Colwith Force. You could feel the sub-bass roaring of the crashing water before you saw it.
Elterwater, Lake District, Summer
After a seriously dry and hot April/May—as noted by the MetOffice—June has proved to be more tropical and, well, wet.
After a seriously dry and hot April/May—as noted by the MetOffice—June has proved to be more tropical and, well, wet.
In the last week or so we’ve had mid-20°C heat combined with thunder and lightning (very very frightening), and heavy downpours of rain.
It seems to me, an enthusiastic amateur of meteorology, that the UK is increasingly experiencing more tropical summers: humid, hot, and wet. Climate change, yo.
After extensive, and perhaps obsessive, checks on various weather services, Lisabet and I decided to venture into the Lake District for a decent post-work summer hike. We chose a favourite of ours, and a generally popular trail: Skelwith Bridge to Elterwater village, via Elter Water the lake.
Thankfully our weather chimping paid off. There was no rain, barely any wind, puffy clouds everywhere and hardly anyone around. I’ve never seen Skelwith Bridge and Elterwater so bereft of people during the summer.
All photos shot on a Fujifilm X-T2 with a 16–50mm f/3.5–5.6 lens, using a customised Classic Chrome film simulation.
This is Skelwith Force, one of my favourite Lake District waterfalls. It’s not very big at all, maybe a 15ft drop, but the force of water through it is powerful, especially after heavy rain.
This is an attempt at a 6-shot panorama, scanning right to left. I wanted to capture the whole span of Skelwith Force in one image. The individual photos were edited in Capture One, then manually blended together in Affinity Photo.
The astonishing view you get when exiting Force How Woods from Skelwith Bridge. The open fields of Birk Rigg Park and the magnificent peaks of the Langdale Pikes.
Not pictured: all the horseflies bumping into me.
It’s hard to stop shooting compositions involving the Langdale Pikes around here.
And then there’s “the view”… this is Elter Water, with the Langdale Pikes almost perfectly reflected in it. Elter Water’s one of the smaller lakes in the Lake District, but no less spectacular. Its name, like a lot of Northern England places, comes from Old Norse: elptr/alpt, which means “swan”, and vatn, meaning “lake”, giving us “lake of swans”.
Someone left a towel by the shore of Elter Water. And below it, the charred earth signifying a fire or BBQ. Clean up after yourselves.
The bridge over Great Langdale Beck at Elterwater Village.
I spotted this composition in the distance and though my main lens only zooms in to 50mm I had to try and shoot it anyway. A lone horse in between the woods with the crags of Loughrigg Fell above. I had to crop in quite a lot.
The way back to Skelwith Bridge, with the sun start to dip and giving us those deliciously long shadows and warm light.
Perfect reflections of Wetherlam (763 m/2502 ft) in the River Brathay.