The Tongue

Start: The Queen's Head, Town Head, Troutbeck, Windermere, Cumbria (LA23 1PW)

(S/E) From the car park entrance of The Queens Head, cross the main road carefully and walk down the road opposite, with 20mph signs. At a junction, turn right onto a private road (Ing Lane) with a public bridleway sign (ignoring another bridleway on the right). Follow the lane for ¾ mile, bearing left as you reach the valley floor and passing a barn before crossing the beck at Ing Bridge.

(1) Continue along the lane, which bends left (ignore a right turning) and continues past another small barn and a gate and over a second bridge (Hagg Bridge).

(2) Leave the track here, turning right at a stile and keeping to the right of a hillock (Hall Hill) then climbing to a gate at the top of the field. Turn right along the track, which curves left up the valley.

(3) Just before a gate, pass (but do not follow, yet) a path on the right down to a footbridge. Continue along the track, passing a barn after ¼ mile and going through a couple more gates, until the accompanying wall on your right bends away to the right.

(4) Just beyond this point, leave the track onto a quad-bike track on the left that leads obliquely up the brackeny hillside.

(5) At the top of the hill, turn left and follow a vague path along the ridge of The Tongue (A). Beyond two mossy outcrops, the path crosses a boggy dip to a stile and then continues gradually uphill to the summit. Having admired the outstanding views, drop left off the ridge down a steep path through bracken. Beyond a slightly rocky section, go through a gate and continue, dropping left from the main spine of the ridge.

(6) Towards the bottom, you meet a wall, which you follow left to a stile back onto the main track up the valley. Turn right through a gate and then left on a path down to a footbridge. Go through a gate in the top corner, then turn right through a second gate.

(7) Follow the bridleway above the intake wall for ½ mile to a barn, then continue for a similar distance to Long
Green Head Farm, where you keep left to continue above the wall.

(8) The bridleway eventually leads along the top of a wood to a fork beyond a high deer-gate.

(9) Take the right-hand (lower) path. Beyond a metal gate, pass a small stone building then turn right and walk down through Limefitt Holiday Park. Cross the bridge over the beck and bear left up the entrance road to the main road.

(10) Turn left and walk down the main road towards the church.

(11) Turn right onto a footpath by a covered well on the right and continue past a churchyard gate. At the next gate, leave the main path onto a waymarked path on the right that follows a fence then crosses to pass an oak tree to a gate. Continue through a second gate and along a fenced path which meets a wall and continues as a farm track.

(12) At the next junction, turn right to meet the A592. Cross into the track opposite and turn immediately left onto a permitted path that runs parallel to the road along the top of two fields, back to The Queens Head (B). (S/E)

Start: The Queen's Head, Town Head, Troutbeck, Windermere, Cumbria LA23 1PW

Web www.queensheadtroutbeck.pub
Email info@queensheadtroutbeck.pub
Tel 015394 32404

Notes: One moderate climb, and a steep, slightly loose and rocky descent. Walking boots recommended.

Find more information on Walks From the Door.

(A) The Tongue is of only moderate height but provides superb views to Windermere and of the surrounding fells, including Wansfell, Red Screes, Stony Cove Pike, Threshthwaite Mouth at the head of the valley, and the Froswick/Ill Bell/Yoke ridge to the east.

(B) Refreshment available at the Queens Head:

OPENING TIMES
Mon–Sun: 11:30am–11pm

FOOD SERVICE
Breakfast: 8am–10am
Lunch, Mon–Sat: 12 noon–9pm Sun: 12 noon–7pm

The new Queens Head features a cosy drinking area with newly refurbished dining areas and 10 comfortable en-suite guest bedrooms providing the perfect base for guests to Cumbria and, of course, their four-legged companions.