Tag: dale
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On Wayworth Moor
There’s nothing quite like exploring a new place, seeing a new view, or just the sudden recognition of a familiar view from a different direction. The last time I was on Wayworth Moor to look at the stone circle was 2016. Five years, it seems an eternity. Ahead, Leven Vale is suffused in the verdurous…
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The enigma of the Kildale man who went down with the Titanic
On the 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic had been at sea for five days on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City when she hit the iceberg on her starboard side that caused her hull plates to buckle inwards, flooding five of the sixteen watertight compartments that had been designed to make…
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Contrasting farms in Raisdale
Ventured further afield than ever in the past nine weeks and came across this sheltered dale still clothed in bluebells. This lovely beck has no name although the dale is mapped as Raisdale, as is its sibling dale, which is actually drained by Raisdale Beck. Must be confusing for the postman. I passed through two…
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Kentdale
The Kent valley must be the quietest of the Lakeland dales. Hidden from the main tourist route with very few places to park and a ‘dry’ valley with no pub. This ruined sheepfold and barn is on the Garburn Pass, an ancient drovers’ route from Troutbeck, overlooking the middle section of the valley. Kentmere Tarn…
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Borrowdale
January 2011 and a smidgeon of snow persists in the gullies of the Central Fells. I’m at about the 670m contour on the north-east slope of Ullscarfe. Just below a knoll that’s named High Saddle. Below is Borrowdale, and the settlement of Stonethwaite which was, in the 13th-century, a medieval vaccary for Fountains Abbey, over…
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The Battle of Rannerdale
Nicholas Size, in his 1930’s novel ‘The Secret Valley’, tells the story of Norman attempts to quell the armed resistance of the Norse settlers of Lakeland. In the 1070’s Boethar the Younger chose Buttermere valley as his base to defend Lakeland and to carry out guerrilla attacks against the Normans. Before the modern road around…
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Honister Pass
Looking back on a long slog up to Littledale Edge from Gatesgarth on a glisky autumnal morning. 24 hours earlier the Lakes had been inundated by a tumultuous downpour with 75 mph winds forcing the abandonment of the 2008 Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) that “could have ‘turned mountains into a morgue’” according to one sensationalist…
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Bilsdale
Upper Bilsdale, the dale of William the Bastard so the legend goes who became lost during his harrying of the North. The nearest farm is Whingroves with its inbye fields completely given over to the mass production of pheasant chicks. Inbye land is the most productive on an upland farm, often the closest to the…
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Kildale
Where is Kildale? It seems such a vague place. The village is well known but where exactly is Killi’s dale. Generally, the parish encloses the upper reaches of the River Leven but it also extends into the watershed of the River Esk with Sleddale Beck and Baysdale Beck forming the boundary. Most, but not all…
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Forgotten Footpaths
I’ve found a website which is currently fascinating me. It’s called ‘Don’t Lose Your Way’ and it’s run by the Ramblers. It enables a direct comparison between the modern Ordnance Survey map and the 1895 edition. Its purpose is to identify and record lost footpaths that have been omitted as statutory Public Footpaths from the…