Month: December 2019
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Lonscale Fell with Skiddaw in the distance
The problem with the internet it is so easy to get sidetracked. I searched for “Skiddaw” and came across a couple of proverbs listed in scans of 18th-century books courtesy of Google. “The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, Volume 46” by “A Society of GENTLEMEN” published in 1778 has this in a chapter on…
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Blencathra Mine
An intriguing long sunken pit alongside the Glenderaterra River that’s been conveniently used as a dump for rusting stock fencing. It looks like a waterwheel pit to me and probably used to provide power to pump out the shaft of the Blencathra Lead Mine which was last worked in 1875. This is the southernmost working…
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Cumbrian Sunset
A cracking end to the day after a windy climb this morning up Halls Ridge into the cloud. Not much of a view from the top of Blencathra and no hanging around. Came out of the mist on the zig-zags down Blease Fell to blue skies. Sunset was at 15.53 today so this is about…
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The Cloven Stone
On Mungrisedale Common, the north side of Blencathra. In the distance Back o’ Skiddaw with Skiddaw House just below the cloud. This distinctive rock marked the boundary of the Lordship of Threlkeld, land that was claimed in the medieval times by the de Threlkeld family. Tenants had rights to graze their animals, cut wood and…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
The drift entrance to the mine which operated between 1907-1931 although no ore was extracted after 1921. It has been deliberately blocked for public safety. The brick building behind is an electrical sub-station and probably dates from 1914 when an electric sirocco fan was installed to replace the old method of ventilation by lighting a…
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Robin Hoods Butts
The large expanse of heather moorland between Scaling Dam and Danby Beacon is one of the bleakest moors and at its bleakest at the height of the winter. I am reminded of Christina Rossetti’s poem published under the title “A Christmas Carol”: In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron,…
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Codbeck Reservoir
Not much wind this Christmas Day morning. The proverbial millpond. Plenty of folks making use of the perimeter path. Christmas Day, the day most Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. It hasn’t always been celebrated on this date. Prior to the 5th-century when Church leaders agreed to fix the date of the birth of Christ,…
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“Night of the Mothers”
Ah, Christmas Eve. If you were a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon pagan you would be celebrating “Mōdraniht” tonight or the “Night of the Mothers“. We know this because the venerable Bede wrote it down in the 8th-century. However, he went no further into the traditions and customs but it is speculated that a sacrifice could have been…
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The Slapewath Gap
The defile between Belmont Bank and Airy Hill, the “natural” route east from Guisborough and on to Whitby. A route that would clearly connect up with the medieval trod, the Quakers Causeway, across the moors. In 1861 the Cleveland Railway was built through the gap to access the ironstone mines of East Cleveland enticing landowners…
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Clumber Lake and Church
The country estates of Clumber, Welbeck and Thoresby are known collectively as the Dukeries. Clumber was the seat of the Duke of Newcastle. It was a remnant of Sherwood Forest until he had the estate landscaped in the 18th-century. With an impressive circumference of eleven miles, The Duke created deer parks, woodland, gardens and had…