Hiking reports: Honister Slate Mine to Keswick on Remembrance Day

On Remembrance Sunday 2013 we were stopping with friends in Keswick. They had volunteered to man the car park at the Honister Slate Mine to collect for the Poppy Appeal. There is a tradition in the Lake District that there is a Remembrance Day Service on Great Gable. The car park at the Honister Slate Mine is one of the nearest car parks to the peak. Our friends had to be there by 07:00, so we left their home at 06:30 and climbed into their frozen car.

It was light by the time we reached the slate mine and we set off round the back of the Youth Hostel following the miners' trail downhill. We'd decided not to go up to Great Gable because we would have needed to take the same way back against a flow of visitors, as our friends were due to stop chinking tins at 10:00. Our aim was to walk down to Grange in Borrowdale.

The track was good, though slippery in parts and easy to follow. This was good as British waymarking is very patchy compared to the Teutonic systems we are used to. It was a very clear and fresh morning. The high peaks around had a dusting of snow from the storms of the day before. As the sun lit up the frost covered floor of Borrowdale it resembled nothing less than a water colour painting. We negotiated the back of Castle Crag with care as the way was steep with many loose stones. We had a cup of tea and a piece of cake in the Grange Cafe. Our friends arrived and suggested that we walk back to Keswick. We did not hesitate and took the Panorama Way overlooking Derwent Water before dropping into Portinscale and the outskirts of Keswick. Length 17km - about 10 miles.

Even if you have not got friends prepared to offer their car as a taxi service you can take a bus from Keswick up the pass in summer that will bring you to the slate mine. The Slate Mine has a cafe and sells excellent bacon butties amongst other items.