Drawing 362: The Buttermere Valley, from Grey Knotts
Direction of view: NW
Notes: The viewpoint is on the path from Drum House to Green Gable, which crosses the slopes of Grey Knotts.
This sketch also appears on page 79 of Wainwright in Lakeland, and a photograph of it is on page 128 of Fellwalking with a Camera. The sketch is an extremely accurate representation of that photograph.
Comments: I took this picture – and its companion 359 – on 17th July 2017 (see Drawing 201 for an account of that day). Near the location of the sketches I chatted awhile to two Australians from Perth, who were doing a leisurely three week traverse of the Coast to Coast Walk, and loving it. No wonder – the weather was glorious.
The north westerly slopes of Grey Knotts, from where this view is taken, are – as Wainwright says – plainly unattractive. The Borrowdale side, by contrast, is “pleasant and interesting, having several notable features- chiefly, high up, the massive buttress of Raven Crag”. This features one of the classic rock climbs of the district: Gillercombe Buttress; a name sometimes used by climbers to refer to the whole crag. The crag is well illustrated on page Grey Knotts 10 of The Western Fells.
