Cautley Spout - near Sedbergh

Date of visit 18/09/24

We like to try and get out as much as possible, and love a decent walk that is doable for all of our party, 2 x 60+, a 22 and an 8 year old, which makes an interesting mix.

We had decided to stay away from The Lakes themselves on our visit to cumbria, having been there a couple of years ago and seeing how busy they were. With this in mind I had found a few places of interest, Cautley Spout being one such. We had elected to do the short walk, at 2.5 miles this seemed enough for the day, having already carried out a 4+ mile walk at Smardale Gill.

We had looked to do the waterfall walk in the morning, but the car park, well layby, is very small and only accommodates a hand full of cars, so we came back in the afternoon when apparently it is generally less busy!

This walk really isn't suitable for any type of wheels, pushchair or otherwise. After leaving the layby you are faced by a set of about a dozen uneven steps, down to a wooden footbridge over the River Rawthey, which would clearly be problematic.

The ground on the other side of the river is pretty decent, flat and compacted slate, with some pretty views of the river and hills.

There are sections of the path that are damp, where the water running off the hill traverses the path. The good thing, on the day we visited the path was wet in small areas, but not muddy. The stepping stones over the wet sections were good fun for Little One, who has got the idea of stepping from one stone to the next, if they're not too far apart - saying that, he does still miss occasionally!

We had a pleasant surprise, when we saw half a dozen, or so, paragliders, enjoying the glorious blue sky, as were we, from terra firma. I'm sure we looked as small to them, as they did to us, on the below video...!

We continued to follow the path towards, well, we weren't too sure to be honest, we were just following the well-trod path. It was a lovely day and while we might have been pretty much the only ones walking towards the falls, we did see a few people coming away, oh and sheep - always sheep!

We eventually reached the falls, after just over an hour walking. We didn't have the energy to go further up to the top of the falls, which was a shame as reading online there is supposed to be a great view from the top and a great place for a cold water dip. The falls look more impressive then my video shows, but you get the idea, hopefully.

Missing out on reaching the top, we did discover that the lower section of the falls does create a fairly decent area for getting your toes wet. We have been talking for a while about wild swimming, and have constantly wimped out. We hadn't brought costumes with us, but with nobody about we were able to get into the water, if not actually for a proper dip! As can be seen from the pictures, the ladies and Little One had to strip off their trousers for their dip, whereas I went prepared in my long shorts - and I was never even a Boy Scout!

Off on a tangent!

The emphasis of my blog has always been focused on the young boy we call Little One, but my wife and I have also cared for one of our granddaughters from when she was 10, she's now 22, and she enjoys our days out and away days!

She went through CAMHS when she was about 14 as she was struggling with everyday processes. It was my belief that she was autistic, as she showed so many of the traits, every day. Unfortunately the health professional who carried out her assessment wasn't the most helpful - announcing our granddaughter is on the spectrum, with "but then aren't we all" - I could have screamed. Any way, diagnosis or not we knew what she was struggling with and have tried to help her, using mitigations along the way.

While she still has many problems, that prevent her functioning in what some might consider "normal", she has of late given to trying things out, things that would have been outside of her comfort zone previously. She surprised us last year with taking on the wire bridge at Steall Falls. This time, it was acting like a salmon as she battled her way upstream!

There are plenty of things she still doesn't get in life, but at least she is being given the opportunity, like Little One, to try things out, safely - I hope!

After our dip we retraced our steps, back to the start, with the final part of the journey back over the wooden bridge to our car.

We all enjoyed this walk, although, with the amount of running water around we didn't feel it safe to let Little One off of his wrist strap, until we had him fully under our control, in the water itself. The terrain wasn't too difficult, but it did climb quite a bit from start to finish, and if we had ventured further up to the top of the falls, would have been a challenge for many. As previously mentioned, it's not really suitable for wheels and at 2.5 miles round trip should possibly only be tackled by those with a reasonable degree of mobility.

Well worth giving it a go!