Penlaz three

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I walked PenLaz Two from Lazonby to Penrith in May 2024. The northern half of the route, between Langwathby and Lazonby didn’t work, because the banks of the River Eden had been flood-damaged and were not repaired yet. I plotted an alternative route for this half, and walked it with a friend, from Langwathby to Lazonby (followed by the first section of the long Lazonby to Carlisle (CarLaz) route as far as Armathwaite, to finish another day). (These places all have stations on the Settle Carlisle line.) The photos are from both dates. I’ll describe it as though I walked from Penrith to Lazonby.
From Penrith Station the route headed through the town centre, and up Fell Lane to reach Beacon Edge. The climb uphill on woodland paths through Beacon Plantation which are not official public rights of way, but are advertised, and regularly used by locals and visitors, particularly to reach the viewpoint of Beacon Tower, which would be a short diversion off this route.
From here the track is fairly level to reach the road. There were occasional cars along this road section, but it gradually became quieter further from Penrith. In fact, it was really quite a pleasant, peaceful, undulating section, with good views towards the North Pennines.
On reaching the A686 it became quite busy with cars though, but it was only for about half a mile and there was a good verge most of the way, and the bridge over the River Eden had a separated section for walkers and cyclists.
The pretty village of Langwathby, near the midpoint of the route, had a nice pub with rooms and food, buses and a station, an outdoor café on the green, and a convenience store.
From here, a section of quiet road took us to Little Salkeld, and soon after, we turned off onto a farm lane which led to Long Meg and her Daughters. This is a quite spectacular, ancient stone circle. There were lots of cows here, but they were docile and used to human visitors.
The lane from here almost to the road at Daleraven, was a narrower woodland track, which would be almost impossible for most wheeled users – but not for motocross bikes unfortunately. We had to stand aside for them several times as they fumed their noisy way past, chewing up the ground so that it was a muddy mess in places. It was a Saturday and hopefully they aren’t usually out, and to be fair, they were extremely polite, passing us carefully with a smile and a wave or a nod. I’d rather they didn’t go there at all though!
We had a short section of quiet road before reaching the fields alongside the River Eden. It was dull and damp this time, in September, but had been absolutely lovely in May! Following the river gave us an excellent view of the beautiful Lazonby Bridge.
After crossing this, there’s a short walk into the pleasant village of Lazonby and its station, and other facilities.
Overall, this was a lovely walk, in a quieter corner of Cumbria, but I felt I had to drop a star for the motocross spoilt section, unfortunately.

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