Sun 7 May 2017
For a full index of the walks, please click here
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Mardale from Knipescar Common |
We were off by about 8:10 in
glorious sunshine - until we left the car to set off up the farm road to Knipescar
Common. However, in spite of the grey cloud moving over it was quite warm
with very little breeze, and the visibility was reasonably good. There were many lambs in the fields.
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Playful lambs |
After passing the old
farm we started to walk long by the wall on the top terrace and were
struck by the huge amount of beautiful gorse flowers.
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The top terrace |
As we moved further
I was trying to identify the species of trees over the wall when Andrew
suddenly told me to stop, and not to move. It was said so urgently I expected to see an adder on the path.
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A squirrel kitten |
But it turned out to be a very small
red squirrel - a kitten! I reached for the camera, and was able to zoom and
focus because the animal remained perfectly still, looking at us, about six
feet away. I obtained several photos, including a good profile as it turned
away slightly, but as Andrew was attempting to do the same it moved off,
dragging its tail rather than holding it curled over its back. I had noticed
its eye appeared to be a little wet, and that and its slow movements suggested
it was not well. It ran away from us along the path, and as we followed it
moved further away, and later we watched as it headed over to the wall and
disappeared into a large hole. We decided it was quite fit; just very young.
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The stone circle - visible because the bracken had died down |
We then decided to try
and seek for the ancient settlement which on my previous visit I had
failed to locate. This time it was easy, because the bracken was dead and a pole
marking the centre of a stone circle was quite prominent.
It is marked as a
circle on the OS map but among the clints of a loose vegetation-covered limestone
pavement it isn't all that clear. There is a large stone near the centre
which looks like a kind of altar.
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Dark goings-on on Knipescar Common! |
After the usual photographs Andrew decided to
act as a mock sacrifice and lay on the stone with a short stalk for an arrow! The
photo suggests that he was treated as a vampire with a thick stake to finish
him off.
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Beautiful view over the gorse |
We set off back along
the path by the wall and decided to have our lunch sitting looking over the
bank of gorse with a panoramic view of the fells to the south west. We could
see Selside Pike and Branstree and Harter Fell easily and after some indecision we identified
Ill Bell, then Mardale Ill Bell and High Street. Nearer was a clear view of the
Naddle Horseshoe and Haweswater and its dam. There was something
peaceful and beautiful about the place, even though there was no sun, and we
spent a good half hour admiring the view.
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The kiln on the east end of the terraces |
After that we explored the path
eastwards which leads by the side of a huge quarry, now exhausted and silent in
contrast to the noise and activity when I was last there. We returned to the
Common and walked to the south east end and then took the cart track down past an old lime kiln where we stopped to open our bottles of Wainright beer in
celebration of:
Andrew's completion of
The Outlying Fells Of Lakeland!
