Features of Our Walk

Our circular walk of 6 to 7 miles took in some of the main features of the village of Boot and surroundings on the edge of the Lake District. Starting out at the hostel, we headed north from the Woolpack Inn in Boot. Here we got straight into the wide-open expanses on the western flank of Scafell and Scafell Pike. Our initial aim was the high ground (about 260 m high) just north of Eel Tarn. On the descent we visited the now restored Boot Mill. Next on our schedule was Dalegarth, the present-day terminus of the R&ER. We then looked in at the historic Boot church. After this, we took the Railway Path to the bridge which used to take the former 3 ft gauge railway line across the river Esk to the mine workings at Gill Force. We then followed the River Esk to the Doctor Bridge and thence to the Woolpack Inn and the Hostel.

As we headed north from the Woolpack Inn in Boot, we got straight into the wide-open expanses at the western flank of Scafell and Scafell Pike. Here we see Eel Tarn nestling in the landscape.

The day was overcast with low cloud. This restricted the height we felt it was safe to reach on our walk. In fact, much above 350 metres would have seen us in the clouds! However, it was still an enjoyable walk with new vistas.

Now prepare ye for some plots and graphs. Not too overwhelming, but hopefully quite interesting! You will see here:

• An Outline Map of Our Walk
• Height Profile of Our Walk
• Some Facts and Figures
• Extra, Less Quantifiable, Considerations
• Timing & Speed
• Track File
• And Finally

How far were we from the Centre of London?

Our walk started and ended at the Boot's Hostel, whose front door was about 240 miles north west of the centre of London. The centre of London is officially taken as the intersection of The Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street. This intersection is often referred to as Charing Cross, not to be confused with the nearby Victorian Eleanor Cross itself, nor the station in front of which the cross stands. The detailed figures, for the fun of it, are as shown below.

Boot is a fair old distance from the centre of London!

Our "straight line" distances are actually "great circle" distances on the earth's surface. To calculate these, we assume here that the earth to be spherical, which is not far off the mark. Assuming the earth to be a sphere gives us a maximum error of about 0.1% in our distance values. Not that much really! Can't complain! Indeed, we can speak of the distances as the "hypothetical crow" (cornix hypothetica) flies.

Cornix Hypothetica, our hypothetical crow,
isn't any old bird, as we should know.
Cornix Hypothetica! Many miles for us you go,
with many a "straight line" o'er Earth to show.

Our walk was centred on Boot, which, as the crow flies,
is under 7 miles from Ravenglass on the Irish Sea coast.
From the centre of London, Boot is about 240 miles (380 Km).

Outline Map of The Walk

Our circular walk gave us a good flavour of the landscape and countryside in and around Boot. Indeed, Eel Tarn, Boot Mill, Dalegarth R&ER Station, Boot Church and the banks of the River Esk all echoed to the sound of our feet!

Outline Map of Our Walk
Y and X axes are in degrees latitude and longitude respectively.
The minus sign indicates degrees WEST of Greenwich.

The map grid scales translate to 1.112 Km per 0.01° latitude and a mean of 0.647 Km per 0.01° longitude, all when using 6371.0 Km as the volumetric mean radius of the earth - as per the WGS84 standard! This makes the longitude scale 34 metres per 0.01° longitude LESS than in Maidenhead on the Thames. This in principle is a confirmation of the expected - because Maidenhead (on the Thames) lies further south than Boot (in the Lake District)!

Because we don't live on a flat earth - unless you are a convinced "flat earther" - maps are inevitably a distortion of what is. In other words, it's all a matter of mapping a curvaceous surface onto a flat surface. We don't want to carry curvaceous representations of the terrain on our walks, do we? In our case, the northern length of our map grid is stretched out by an extra 0.07 %, to make it the same on the page as the length of the southern part of our map grid. Not that much for hiking purposes really! Can't complain.

Height Profile of Our Walk

This height profile shows that our main climb was in the morning. We reached about 262 m, eschewing higher ground because of the weather. In mist-free conditions we might have reached Scafell, on whose lower flank we were. Later in the day we took to the lower ground. Much of Boot was - possibly to avoid floods - built just above the level of the River Esk, along whose banks we returned to base.

Height Profile

Some Facts and Figures

Here are some "vital statistics" in metric and imperial units. Start and end elevations are the same - as expected! The total ascent (here 541 m) exceeds the difference between maximum and minimum elevations (here (262 - 33) m or 229 m); I'd suspect things, if the reverse transpired! The total distance, as always measured on a conceptual "flat" plane at mean sea level, is 6.92 miles or 11.14 Km. Of this, probably anything up to a mile was used for actually visiting locations such as the Mill, Dalegarth Station and the Church.

"Walk facts and figures"

Extra, Less Quantifiable, Considerations

On any walk there are considerations which are very real but tantalizingly out of ready reach of those who wish to espouse a numerical approach to many of life's activities. Here are three considerations for starters.

• Weather: From the pictures we can see that we had good visibility below about 350 m. However, I do not have detailed weather records!


• Ground Conditions: Walkable and not too muddy.


• Signposting: The paths were adequately signposted in Boot.

Timing and Speed

It's one thing to discuss the terrain over which we walk. It's quite another to ask how we personally respond to walking over that terrain. There are a number of considerations, of which timing and speed can be taken as starting points.

• Timing: Excluding stops for "sightseeing", the actual walk took a leisurely 3 hours.


• Speed: The distance of the walk - excluding sightseeing - was about 6 miles. This gave an average speed of about 2 mph; this was nice and leisurely, considering that the terrain was not completely flat!

Track File

If you are keen to see our walk superimposed on an Ordnance Survey® (OS) map, then you can use the following file to do so. The numerical data in this file were recorded on my GPS (Garmin®). The data are based on WGS84. Of course, for copyright reasons, I do not show the OS-based map here. Furthermore, the plot may also include some walkabouts at the "sightseeing" places; hence, as stated above, there may be a slight over estimation of the length by perhaps 1 mile in total.

Boot Circular

And Finally - a Matter of Practicality

Any map is an approximate representation of what is. Practicality and scale are relevant considerations. We are not dealing with a planning application calling for detailed spatial descriptions of intricate boundaries. For us in the hiking community, the degrees of accuracy and precision should be just enough to give us useable and helpful knowledge of the terrain about us and beneath our feet. I hope my humble endeavours on this page are in this respect interesting for, and useful to, you, my reader!