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Blakey Topping
A rewarding day on Thompson’s Rigg with the constant backdrop of Blakey Topping. The task was to install water vole fencing along Crosscliff Beck. Now that is not fencing to keep the water voles in but to keep sheep out. Water voles are one of our rarest native mammals and have suffered a sharp decline…
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Not another one!
I remembered today a painting my aunty had above her fireplace. It was of a blue lady and it was years later that I discovered that it was just a reproduction sold in its thousands in 1960s furniture shops. The painting was called the Chinese Girl, and apparently the original was sold for nearly £1…
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Silver birch, Turkey Nab
Perhaps my favourite tree, one of the first trees to recolonise Britain after the ice sheets retreated. It is an opportunist tree, producing hundreds of windblown seeds that are quick to germinate and grow rapidly making it the bain of gamekeepers and foresters alike. Even the National Trust control the tree cover on their moorland…
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Lagopus lagopus
Ah, the “glorious twelfth”. Nothing much happening on Urra Moor, the cloud was down this morning so I assume any shooting planned would have been cancelled in any case. So this little fella survives another day. I spotted him along Carr Ridge on the edge of the escarpment clucking away. But high on Urra Moor…
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Ingleby Moor
No excuse but another photo of the purple. It’s that time of the year. Have to make the most of it. The season does not last long. Had a pootle around the upper reaches of Baysdale. This is from the east side of Tidy Brown Hill, overlooking Black Beck, a tributary of Baysdale Beck. In…
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The Summerhouse Field
A lazy day, tired after Lakeland exertions. I just managed to wander up with the dog to what the family calls the folly field but which the Tithe map of 1847 lists, perhaps not surprisingly, as the Summerhouse Field. By this time the summerhouse had been in existence for about seventy years. The map recorded…
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Brundholme Lead Mine
Glenderaterra Beck, a tributary of the River Greta, flows between the massifs of Skiddaw and Blencathra. Waking up to rain and cloud covering the high fells, I explored the mine workings alongside the beck. The ruins tell of a history of hope, hardship and disappointment. Work first began at the Brundholme Mine in 1872 but…
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Sail Pass
Which bright spark designed this path? An utter scar. I had no idea this route up from Sail to Causey Pike was so popular to warrant such “improvement”. A lone walker rests while slogging up it but look closely and there are several others taking the “desire line” on the left, a clear path chosen…
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Tan Hill Inn
The famous Tan Hill Inn, highest in Britain at 1,732 feet above sea level. A relentless climb up Arkengarthdale. On reaching the watershed there is still another 2 to 3 km of rolling moorland to go. Into the westerly wind. I didn’t stop, so no chance to inspect the double glazing. You have to be…
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Cook’s Crags overlooking Kildale
Named as Ward Nab on the largest scale maps but known affectionately as Cook’s Crags by the climbing community. The ling is blooming nicely, here seen in a more natural setting than the vast swathes of moorland with which it is normally associated. The low lying shrub has been used through the ages as a…
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