The Windermere West (Claife) Viewing Station
Note that there are steep steps from the car park to the Viewing Station (see gallery). There is a more gentle path from the cafe, see reference point.
An easy multi cache to take you to the Claife Viewing Station, now managed by the National Trust. It is one of the 21 'stations' that priest and author, Thomas West described in his 1778 book 'A Guide to the Lakes”. Geocacher FlipflopNick put out caches at 8 of the stations in 2006. He archived the cache at this viewing station in October 2019.
This is a resurrection of FlipFlopNick’s cache to keep the history alive and because this is the best preserved of all the old viewing stations. If you remember the old cache, this one is much easier to solve.
Windermere had five stations. Claife, Brant Fell, Rawlinson Nab and Belle Isle North & South. The first three have geocaches. Belle Isle is private.
The viewing station you find here was built in the 1790s. In the 1830s and 40s it was used by wealthy visitors for parties and dances. By the end of the 19th century it had fallen out of favour and fell into disrepair. The National Trust have restored the ruins to a safe state and reinstated the viewing windows. With thanks and acknowledgments to the National Trust website for this information.
To find the cache you must visit the Viewing Station, ascend the steps and look at the two windows surrounded by coloured glass. You should also be able to do this from outside at ground level.
The number of rectangular (ie not square) panes of glass surrounding the NORTH facing window = A
The number rectangular panes of glass surrounding the SOUTH facing window = B
The cache can be found at N54 20. A (A – B – 1) B W2 56. B (A - 3) (B – 1)
The cache is a screw top tub, a short walk away.
