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 [...]
Longsleddale – A Beautiful Lakeland Valley
Longsleddale is the beautiful 5-miles twisting valley of the Sprint, penetrating into hills north of Kendal on the south-eastern fringe of the English Lake District. The fells here draw walkers in substantial numbers – although not enough to make it a crowded place; there’s car-parking space by the bridge at Sadgill.
Ancient farmhouses, some with intriguing names such as Wads Howe, Tills Hole and Sadgill, dot the lower levels of the hillsides. Sheep, more than fifty times the human population occupy the heights. The River Sprint, varying with the volume of rainfall from a rippling brook to a raging torrent, flows down over its rocky bed past Garnett Bridge toward Kendal where it joins the Kent.
Below is a selection of articles about Longsleddale from the Around-England blog
The photograph above is of Sadgill bridge, originally built in the early 18th century when drovers brought herds and packhorses transported goods over Gatescarth Pass, possibly replacing an earlier decayed structure. See this page on the British Listed Buildings site for some details on the bridge, and two excellent photographs on the Old Cumbria Gazetteer site produced by the Geography Department of Portsmouth University.
