Newlands Horseshoe 13th November 2025

• No weight carried today, just roaming
• 7.77km route
• Route difficulty - Moderate. We decided not to carry any weight today due to the distance (18km) and the weather conditions. This route has some challenging climbs especially in the 1st km or so, and then it should have been quite undulating as there are 5 summits along the full route so a good challenge of stamina. 

When we planned this adventure we wanted to experience some of the stunning scenery in the area. We set off form a small car park at Little town which is attached to a Glamping site where you can park for £5 all day, but don't forget to take cash. We had travelled up from derby in the early hours and the weather had been pretty horrendous so had already prepared ourselves for a soggy day. When we parked up the weather had cleared up a bit and was only ait drizzly but we put our full waterproofs on as we didn't expect it to stay like that all day. 

The route started out along a mountain path which had been turned in to a fast running stream due to all of the water coming off the mountain side but it was easily passable to carry on. We then had a cross a larger stream just beneath a couple of stunning water falls which had clearly been swollen by the recent rainfall. The path the carried on up to the ridgeline where we turned right towards our first summit of the day (Catbells), and when we reached the summit, the clouds had conveniently cleared to give us some stunning views across Derwent Water and the surrounding mountains. 

We headed back along the path we came up on to head round the horseshoe for the rest of the summits, but as we climbed we started to head up into the cloud base and lost all of the stunning views we had hoped for. Although it was a bit damp in the clouds, it wasn't particularly bad weather, it was just hiding the views from us.

After we had found our way to the 2nd summit (Maiden Moor) we found a rocky spot to sit and have breakfast and a coffee. Normally we would look for somewhere to enjoy the views while we stopped but as the cloud was hanging low, we just enjoyed the food and coffee and imagined the views that could have been. 

After we packed up from our stop, we carried along the path which took us gradually higher, and the all of a sudden the heavens opened and the wind picked up. At this point we were about 2 hours into the hike with possibly another 3-4 hours to go we took the decision to turn back as we didn't expect the weather to improve, and without the views we thought it best to call it a day and not get ourselves into a position that we couldn't get out of. So we headed back along the path that we had come from.

As we dropped down, we started to come out of the cloud cover again, and it was nice to start seeing the views across Derwent Water which stretched out ahead of us and we could see the hotel we were booked into for that night as well. On the way back down, the streams and water falls had swollen even more with the extra rain that had come down while we had been out on the mountain, but thankfully they were still easily passable, although by this time we had become less bothered about keeping our feet dry as we were pretty soaked through any way so paddling across some of the streams was less of an issue.

By the time we had got back to the car, we had dropped out of the worst of the weather so it was pretty calm and dry, which was pretty much the opposite of us 2 and Rosie who were all pretty soggy and looking forward to getting into some dry clothes once we had checked ion the the hotel.

All in all, it was disappointing to have to turn around, but when the weather is against you it is always best to make the sensible decision and turn back, rather than foolishly carrying on and getting yourself in to a situation that you can't get your self out of on your own.