Jenny would have had difficulty climbing to Barf and Lord's Seat the traditional way, which is alongside Beckstones Gill from the old Swan Hotel for that route is both steep and difficult in places. On this walk we parked in a lay by, probably at 11:00 on the 22nd March 2011, and followed a footpath to cross Chapel Beck on a footbridge coming shortly to the houses you see in the photograph where we re-crossed the beck on a substantial bridge. We could have followed the line of houses to join a woodland path alongside Comb Beck but instead followed the contours to pass the house at Ladstock before turning up the track from Hallgarth Farm.
The track led us up to the Whinlatter Pass Road, which we followed uphill for a short distance before entering the Whinlatter Forest Park near the Comb Beck dam. Well surfaced forest trails took us from Thornthwaite Forest to Beckstones Plantation while climbing the whole time. I should explain that Comb Beck flows from the forest back down into Thornthwaite to become Chapel Beck before finally entering Bassenthwaite Lake.
It took us five hours to reach Lord's Seat and thereafter no further photographs were taken. The return was slightly quicker with somewhat less work. It is possible to re-enter the Beckstones plantation quite close to Lord's Seat and on reaching Comb Beck we followed it to Thornthwaite, which was considerably shorter than the outbound route.
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11:42 Thornthwaite houses from the bridge
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13:21 Jenny in woodland
13:27 and 6 minutes later, in the open with good views
13:46 Jenny with Barf in sight
13:49 Looking down at Bishop Rock (painted white) and the old Swan Hotel
14:39 Jenny on Barf Summit 468m
15:59 Jenny on Lord's Seat Summit 552m with Barf in the mid-distance