Landscape

The River Eden at Appleby This Afternoon

November 17, 2011

The sunshine attracted me away from the keyboard after lunch today. My target, with cameras, was the River Eden at Appleby (or, to give it its full name, Appleby-in-Westmorland). What the warplanes circling and thundering overhead were aiming at, in addition to making white trails in the almost cloudless sky, is anyone’s guess. Ignoring the [...]

Cairns on Wild Boar Fell

October 27, 2011

The photo below is of Wild Boar Fell, looking over the western side of Mallerstang Common from near Pendragon Castle in the Upper Eden Valley. If you look carefully you can just see the little points sticking up from the table top of The Nab, to the left of the picture. Here now is a [...]

Hellgill Force – The Upper Eden Valley

October 26, 2011

At the very top of the Eden Valley, close by where Cumbria borders with Yorkshire a stream flows down the hillside then suddenly plunges into the depths of a ravine. The stream is the infant Eden. The waterfall is Hellgill Force. Two weeks ago I strolled briefly around there, leaving the car by the county [...]

Yorkshire Dales Award for Far Moor Bridge

October 17, 2011

Congratulations to the Yorkshire Dales National Park for their new award for the Far Moor bridge. This innovative design and timber construction was developed with the help of the Forestry Commission and provides an important river crossing on the 200-mile Pennine Bridleway national trail currently being developed, and opening next year. Far Moor bridge in [...]

Return to the Eden

October 3, 2011

How good it is to be back in the Eden Valley after a week in Brussels. A string of lectures, project supervision and a panel debate with Euro-officials and politicians were hard work but very enjoyable, especially the days spent with a group of twentyfive wonderful 20-25 year old students from countries all over Europe. [...]

Artist of the Lakes and Dales – and Pendle

September 9, 2011

Yesterday I was in Lancashire attending the funeral of an old friend, and driving from the church to the cemetery passed the studio of landscape artist Keith Melling. I’ve admired his work for many years. For decades he has painted the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and his home turf, that beautiful area around Pendle [...]

To Protect? Or To Preserve? (Opinion Piece)

September 7, 2011

There are wild places, described by poets, painted by artists and loved by country walkers which must be protected for future generations to enjoy. I suspect that most readers of Around-England will have no difficulty in agreeing with that statement. I fear, however, that this post may lose me some friends as I consider the [...]

Return to Longsleddale

August 27, 2011

On Thursday afternoon I made a long-postponed return to what, in my not entirely unbiased opinion, is possibly the most beautiful valley in the Lake District, Longsleddale. Having described it in those terms I have to say that it is also one of the less visited valleys. Its access is away from the major tourist [...]

Bolton Abbey, Jewel of the Yorkshire Dales

August 24, 2011

Growing up in the Lancashire-Yorkshire borderlands I quite often found myself crossing the Pennine watershed from the red rose into the white rose county. One of our frequent outings was to Bolton Abbey. As a child, following in the footsteps of former generations, I did exactly what the children are doing in the photograph above [...]

Lanthwaite Wood – Memory of 2009

August 19, 2011

Lanthwaite Wood is a National Trust property at the foot of Crummock Water in the Lake District, alongside the point where the River Cocker leaves the lake. The car park there provides an excellent starting point for walks, which often give opportunity to see Red Squirrels. The River Cocker flows from here down Lorton Vale [...]

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