Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Lake District

  • Peat storage hut, Birker Fell

    Peat storage hut, Birker Fell

    I came across this ruin on the descent of Harter Fell. The Scafell range of fells provide a stunning backdrop. It is one of 35 huts that have been identified in the Eskdale area that were used for the storage of peat turves. Its date of construction is unclear, certainly post-medieval but it was still…

  • Burnmoor Tarn

    Burnmoor Tarn

    Described by Coleridge as “flounder-shaped” with “it’s Tail towards Sca’ Fell, at its head a gap forming an inverted arch with Black Comb & a peep of the Sea seen thro’ it“. He was on his ascent of Scafell in 1802, and took the direct route from Burnmoor Tarn, so he could well have passed…

  • Ulverston Canal

    Ulverston Canal

    I had it in mind to try to find the ‘Devil’s Chair’, a rock carved stone chair, on Hord Hill near Ulverston, and was intrigued to notice a canal from the town to the sea. A canal! In the Lakes! Perfectly straight, 1ΒΌ miles long. It turned out to be a little gem, brimming with…

  • Threlkeld Common

    Threlkeld Common

    The boggy wilderness of Threlkeld Common, perhaps more well known because of the ‘Old Coach Road’ which traverses it between Dockray and Wanthwaite, keeping to higher, drier ground. I haven’t been able to find much about the road’s history but I surmise it was the old route between Penrith and Keswick before the bridge over…

  • Ruthwaite Cove

    Ruthwaite Cove

    A view down Grisedale from the col between Nethermost Pike and Dollywagon Pike. The name Grisedale portrays its Norse roots. The valley of the pigs β€” ‘griss’ meaning pigs, probably wild boar. On the other hand, St. Sunday Crag, the huge fell on the right is from St Dominic and the Latin: Dies Dominica, the…

  • John Bell’s Banner

    John Bell’s Banner

    Grey skies and many showers accompanied me for the drive over on the A66. But sunshine, blue skies and rainbows appeared for the final leg down Ullswater. At the head of the valley, Cauldale Moor looked splendid in the evening sunshine, encircling the gloomy ridge of Hartsop Dodd. Wainwright gives an alternative name of ‘John…

  • Dove Crag and Hart Crag

    Dove Crag and Hart Crag

    Two mountains, twin peaks, Hart Crag at 2,698′, has its head in the clouds. Dove Crag, at 2,603′, is just about clear. I don’t think I have ever climbed either in their own right. Always on the way to or from Fairfield. And between them, the hanging valley of Houndshope Cove with its scores of…

  • Goldrill Beck

    Goldrill Beck

    The principle “river” in Patterdale between Ullswater and Brotherswater is Goldrill Beck. That’s it there, just right of centre and to the left of the “holiday village” of Hartsop Fold. But compare it to the map, which shows the beck hugging the road, hidden by the trees of low Wood. In the late 18th-century, the…

  • High Street’s Roman Road

    High Street’s Roman Road

    Or is it? The first reference to a Roman Road over the 828m high fell High Street appeared in a book published in 1814 by John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley: ‘The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive, of Each County‘. In spite of some Victorian excavations, when nothing conclusive…

  • Sandwick from Gowbarrow

    Sandwick from Gowbarrow

    A view across Ullswater from the mighty heights of Gowbarrow fell. On the opposite shore, Sandwick lies at the junction of Martindale and Boredale separated by the ridge of Beda Fell. Patches of snow on Rampsgill Head. Martindale once boasted a public house, the Star Inn, now a farm called Cotehow. Dorothy Wordsworth recalls dining…