The Mrs's Dales Diary

This page follows the Dales Way south down the Lune and up the Rawthey.  
For the opening stages see the Lakeland Section.

 

The Lune & The Rawthey

Stage 4:  The Lune

Wednesday 2nd May 2007

Temperature into the 70s and sensibly leaving it until late to set out to avoid the heat of the day.  Midsummer?  No, just early May 2007.

Our objective was to pick up the Dales Way from Lambrigg Head and to finish somewhere around Sedbergh.  We left one car at Lincoln's Bridge and after the now customary precautionary panic about keys, headed north over Firbank Fell, stopping off at Fox's Pulpit.  I thought I knew all the roads around Kendal but I have no recollection of being here before.

The View from Fox's Pulpit

"Let Your Lives Speak" says the plaque that tells the tell of George Fox preaching from the rock to a thousand seekers on Sunday 13th June 1652.  Great Power inspired his message and it proved to be the start point of the Quaker movement.  

I had a rather smaller audience to listen to my message.

An audience of one

Dodgers and drugsters be warned

Where the road crosses the motorway we saw a police van parked up with a series of cameras aimed at the lanes below.  I thought I would take a photo and a policeman immediately emerged and asked, politely, why?  I explained that we were doing the Dales Way and just taking photos of interesting features on the way and this seemed to satisfy him.  He then went on to inform me that these were not, as I had presumed, speed cameras, but were being used for number plate recognition and every time a suspect number was identified, there was a ping on his computer and the man down the road set off in pursuit.  Their targets were licence dodgers, uninsured drivers and drug dealers and they had had a good week with several arrests and a big haul of heroin.  


The even present Howgills

This section of the Dales Way is overseen by the Howgills that seem to monitor every step. We picked up the Way where we had left it at Lambrigg Head and headed over to Crook of Lune, first passing under a magnificent viaduct for a long disused railway.  Has there ever been such a year for bluebells?

Crook of Lune Viaduct

A riot of Bluebells


Crook of Lune Bridge

Crook of Lune Team  Picture

View from Crook of Lune Bridge

From here we followed the Lune south, spotting en-route, a heron, a mistle thrush, several dippers and what I thought was a plover but now think, due to its orange beak, may have been an oyster catcher.  Some twitchers told us that we had just missed the kingfisher, sadly.

Bluebell Wood

Beware of the Bull

Howgills

The Way!

This stretch of the Lune is lovely and relatively undiscovered.  It is possibly even better heading north as then you would have the Howgills always in sight,  Today, they looked splendid.

The View to the North

Margaret was delighted to find a farm with its washing on the line.  She likes me to take pictures of other folk's washing.  I suppose it's better than actually taking the washing!

Washing Day

Under the Viaduct

Another railway viaduct heralded our return to Lincoln's Bridge where we decided to press on and complete a bit more of the Way.  Terry Marsh, whose guide we were using, had had a good day so far with only a couple of minor ambiguities but he got us lost in this section by not defining which field boundary he meant.  

The exit fitted his description, sort of, but we soon realised it could not be correct so retraced our steps to find the correct exit and the delightful little hamlet of High Oaks.

From here we headed to the A684 (which apparently and intriguingly is known as "Scotch Jeans") and on reaching it decided that that was enough for today as we still had to get back to the car.  

We cut up Back Lane, past Ingmire Hall which we thought had burned down but seems to have been rebuilt as apartments which have just come on the market.

Ingmire Hall

A window in St Gregory's Church

Back on Scotch Jeans, we stopped at Saint Gregory's Church which surprisingly was still open.  

We must have passed this dozens of times over the years and I had always meant to have a look inside.  

It is well worth it if you like simple, small churches with several stunning stained glass windows.

Back to the car and then return to Lambrigg Head to collect the other car.

The policeman had obviously caught his quota and gone home.  

We did likewise.

As we drove along Paddy Lane, the Lakeland skyline was looking splendid in its post-sunset glow.

 

Distance:
7.5 miles

 

 

 

Stage 5:  The Rawthey, Sedbergh and the Miracle

Friday 4th May

We had been looking forward to Dentdale.  The guide book thrills about it although warns of surprisingly hard work.  But first we had to complete the "around Sedbergh" bit that we only half did two days earlier.

 

The Mrs's Dales Diary

The Lakeland Sections

The Lune & The Rawthey

Dentdale

Langstrothdale

Upper Wharfedale

Mid Wharfedale

Conclusion

 

The Lune
& The Rawthey

Stage 4:  The Lune

Stage 5:  The Rawthey,
Sedbergh and
the Miracle

 

BOOT boys

Home Page

BB08 Reports

BB07 Reports

BB06 Reports

BB05 Reports

BB04 Reports

 

 

 

We left a car in Dent where I gave the local council much more than necessary to park. "£1.20 for two hours, £4.50 for longer", I read.  £5 would be needed as we would definitely be longer than two hours and I had no 50p pieces.  Inevitably in rip-off Britain there is no change given (yet in France with similar machines they always give change; and no charge for lunch time and other times that the warden is not working). However it was a bit of a surprise to find that I had been granted 24 hours stay. If I had only engaged brain I would have realised that at 4:10 p.m., two hours would have taken us past the end time for charging.  Never mind, Dent is a nice village and I trust that the council will put my beneficence to good effect.

Drove back to Sedbergh to park the other car opposite the Back Lane to Ingmire Hall on the A683 and followed the track down by the river.  Although it was a beautiful late afternoon, it was surprisingly cold and only one of us had brought windproofs.  After a mile or so, my hands were chilled and I needed to get my gloves out so I opened the rucksack and hat a good rootle around, to no avail.  Margaret then told me she thought that the gloves had not gone back in the sac.  After a minor whinge, we decided to stop and have our tea down by the River Rawthey where it was out of the wind and lovely and warm.  And where a heron came to visit us. 

Team Picture- note odd angle of hat!

River Rawthey

Summer House?

After tea, we pressed on, round by the Sedbergh School football pitches and strange little derelict summer house until we came to Millthrop Bridge and decision point.  

Five miles to Dent, on an evening that was not going to get any warmer or a visit to Sedbergh itself and then back to the car?

We chose the latter.

What is the point of slavishly following the Way just because it begins with a capital letter?  

If there are interesting detours en-route, do them. Especially if they are warmer! 

So we had a wander round Sedbergh which brought back several memories of Jamie's time there and then made our way back towards the car.

View over to Sedbergh

Millthrop Bridge decision point

However, nearing Brigflatts we detoured to have a look at the Quaker Meeting House. This is a real gem, built in 1675 and largely unaltered and still in use for its original purpose.

Quaker Burial Ground

Quaker Meeting Houset

I was sat there, genuinely enjoying the peace of the place when a miracle happened.  It was rather like that moment that Harry Belefonte used to sing when the Scarlet Ribbons came, he never knew from where.  

It's true.  

I looked down and on the bench
In gay profusion lying there,
Lovely gloves, two black gloves,
My long lost gloves for my hands.

However I do not need to live to be a hundred to know how they came to be there.  

They had fallen out of my hat that I had respectively removed on entering the church.  Yes, the very hat that had been on my head all walk.

Inside the Quaker Meeting Houset

I had noticed, when I took an admiring glance at myself in a shop window in Sedbergh, that my hat seemed to be sitting at an odd and high position on my head (see team picture) but thought no more about it.  But he who moves in mysterious ways protected those gloves all the way round the Way and revealed them to me in this wonderful little place.  I gave a good donation to the Church funds in thanks.

Back to the warmth of the car and drove off to Dent for a walk round and to collect the other. We toyed with the idea of going into a pub where a lot of jovial laughter was to be heard but thought we hadn't really earned it so we're saving that for next time

Distance:
4.2 miles

 

E-mail addresses on this web site are protected by

 Spam Trawlers will be further frustrated by
 
Spam Blocker: help fight spam e-mail!