You can find an index to my other walks here
I was pleased to see that some official interest about the old road has been shown since my book has been in the local libraries: there is a brand new signpost pointing it out to anyone curious about it. The surface has much deteriorated since I last walked it, with some of it near Bannisdale High Bridge covered in leaves, grass and mud.
We walked south to the Old Plough Inn site, now labelled on maps as Plough Farm, and back again. Then we set off past Thorn Cottage and up the field to walk the high level part of the old road above Kits How (now Kids Howe), descending to the A6 near the Kendal Caravan company site which used to be where the Jungle Cafe was situated many years ago.
The new road, built by John McAdam around 1825, dives down to cross
Borrow Beck at Huck’s Bridge. We took the old road forking left, now with
a tarmac surface, which leads alongside Crookdale Beck for a mile and a half to
Hause Foot.
In 1980 when I researched the road the building was a ruin in stark surroundings, but later it was renovated and now consists of several modern buildings with a copse and enclosed fields.
The old road, which in wet weather is quite
boggy and not easy to trace, swings round to become a terrace rising along the fell
side.
On reaching the summit at 1,640 feet it is a good width and has a firm
surface, unlike when Bonnie Prince Charlie passed this way with his retreating
army in 1745. It appears that drainage has been done recently over the next two
hundred yards but there is very marshy ground where a stile gives on to the A6.
On crossing the motor road I was delighted to
find the old 10 mile milestone still there hidden in the long grass, but there
was no sign of the ruins of Demmings, probably an inn and staging post for ponies,
judging by a nearby rise being known as Packhorse Hill. It is labelled as a
ruin even on Hodgson’s map of 1823.
It was now 2:15 and so we set off back and enjoyed the pleasant view into Crookdale that you see at the start of this report. Doing the walk refreshed my memory of parts of the road, and we both enjoyed it.
*The North Road A brief history of the Kendal to Shap Road with Foreword by A. Wainwright. (Kendal & Carlisle Libraries Local History Collection)
*The North Road A brief history of the Kendal to Shap Road with Foreword by A. Wainwright. (Kendal & Carlisle Libraries Local History Collection)
