Lonsdale

There is a wonderful phrase in Hebridean Gaelic, rionnach maoimi, meaning literally a mackerel panic but used to refer to the shadows cast on a hillside by clouds moving across the sky on a windy day. I am sure there must be a kindred word for a shaft of sunlight falling on the ground through a break in the cloud cover. If there was I would use it to describe this view of Lonsdale, sunny and bright whilst all around was overcast.

Lonsdale was once part of a medieval deer park and in the right conditions ridge and furrow cultivation can be traced in its fields. On the extreme right is Lonsdale Farm with an 18th-century farmhouse however one of the farm outbuildings is thought to be older and may have been the original dwelling. The buildings just left of centre are modern and are known within the running/biking community as ‘smelly farm’ but it doesn’t smell that bad nowadays.