UK Broadcast Transmission
Main indexMain GalleryFeaturesDSODesktop wallpaper
InfoSend in your photosFAQsMailing listsContact
TeletextMHPTBSAstrohosts

THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY

Photos by Stefan Grace Adams and Stuart Clary

Windermere Cumbria
Landlord: BBC NGR: SD383980 Site Height: 216.4m Structure Height: 30.48m
Analogue TV: BBC1: 51  BBC2: 44  ITV1: 41  Ch4: 47   
Digital TV:          
BBC Radio: R1: 97.9  R2: 88.3  R3: 90.5  R4: 92.7   
  Radio Cumbria: 104.2   
Ind. National Radio:    
Ind. Local Radio: Lakeland Radio: 100.8  The Bay: 102.3 
     
Digital Radio:          
Comments: Windermere is a TV relay of Winter Hill (BBC1/BBC2) and Caldbeck (ITV/C4) (via Kendal?) and a network FM relay
of Holme Moss (via Kendal?)
   

Be prepared for a long walk! The site is just visible from the ferry port at Bowness (see photo list below). There are a number of footpaths that go towards the site but as I found they are very steep and you'll need good walking boots and an OS map to get around. Head for Heald Wood. The easiest, but longest way is to use the access road.

By car, either park in High Wray (not sure if that is possible since the roads are narrow) or use the ample parking spaces in Hawkshead. The latter will need a 2mile walk to get to High Wray.

On entering High Wray (from Hawkshead) there is a right turn sign posted for a National Trust Base Cap. Walk up this track. At the base camp you'll see a track go off to the right, complete with wooden gate and ten padlocks! There is a second gate to the left that allows you access by foot since the route is a bridle/foot path. Keep walking! At one point the track will come to a Y junction, the left appearing to go down hill and the right up hill. Take the left track (don't panic, you'll go up hill again!). At a clearing you'll just see the white dipole sticking out from the trees. Stay on the track until you reach a left hand turn. Take the left turn and follow it around to the right. You've arrived.

I did the route in reverse, so a downhill walk from site to Hawkshead will take 1hr 20mins. Expect a 2hr walk going uphill.

Going, I took a boat from Bowness to Ferry House (£2.95 return) and used steep footpaths. A word of warning though, parking in Bowness for the day costs between £5-£9 depending on the car park used. More amazing was the 30min bus ride I took from Hawkshead back to Windermere. A one-way ticket on the 505 service cost a whopping £5.55!!! No wonder the bus was empty.

   

The view across the lake from the Bowness ferry port. All that is visible is the glass fibre shroud

On the track towards the site

Even when close to the site the trees are still in the way!

 
 
 

No idea what these aerials are for but they are pointing into the trees!

Close-up of tower upper-section.

Note VHF dipoles point N,E & S only

Base of mast with equipment buildings. On my visit a number of trees have been
removed around the site.

The stubs in the ground are "fresh" and there is that
just cut tree smell!

A new base for an equipment pod?

As some of the trees have been removed I'm
wondering if another tower is to be errected soon. The current tower is cramped
because of all the services trying to be above tree height, so another GSM
operator will have fun trying to get their antennas in if they use the current
tower.

Back to TX Gallery index | TX main index