For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Friday 10 July 2020

Holme Knott - SD 646 895

Holme Knott - s.w. of Sedbergh - Thursday 9th July 2020 - (Day 104 of Lockdown)

I am running out of circular walks up the Lune valley north of Kirkby Lonsdale. When I plotted this one I noticed the trig point at Holme Knott and had no hesitation in including the short diversion. Back home I realised I had visited that trig twice before. When I was mopping up the trigs on that OS sheet I had some camera malfunction and failed to get photos of two or three and went back again later.

I must have walked all of today’s route before in one direction or the other but had very little recollection - I suppose that is one debatable plus for having a poor memory?

The approach was up a very narrow lane which only leads to a lonely farm but two or three cars came up behind me then a car towing a big touring caravan. I had nowhere to go and sort of impaled my back to the hawthorn hedge posing as some shaman on a vertical bed of nails and hoping I would not be disembowelled by the extra wide wing mirror.

Once out onto the open fell walking was fine on a good track but on the whole walk there seemed to be a total absence of bird life - eerie.

Thanks to Paul at:

https://5000milewalk.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/19-ulverston-to-barrow-in-furness/

I have downloaded the app "Plant Snap" which identifies flowers by taking a photo - so far it seems to be a worthwhile app - they are tempting me to go for the premium edition which involves payment and I may well do that after trying the free version for a while.


Thanks to Plant App I now know this is Rose Campion after  seeing it everywhere for years.
You can see the narrow lane where I was nearly crucified by a caravan towing car.

Out onto the open fell following this ancient lane and then branching off right to follow...

...this attractive stream

The public footpath on the map continued where the stream ran under this wall but there was no access over the wall. I followed the red line to join the track further up the hill. The approximate line of the path shown on the OS map is shown in blue.

Approaching the trig of Holme Knott

My footpath crossing this lively stream on the way down

The route was plotted anti-clcokwise but walked clockwise




7 comments:

  1. That's a lovely walk - I find ancient tracks fascinating.
    Thanks for the Plant Recognition app details, I've downloaded it and it's going to be used in anger today.

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  2. John J - I always feel a palpable atmosphere on those old tracks imagining the medieval peasants toiling along with their pack animals. Perhaps they would be good a good vrnue for metal detecting?

    My iPhone has many unused apps that "seemed like a good idea at the time" but I think Plant Snap is here to stay and I am fairly sure I will go for the premium. You can pay monthly or I think a once only larger amount. The adverts on the free version are most irritating.

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  3. A key question that you didn't address: was the switch from anti-clockwise to clockwise premeditated or a spur of the moment decision upon arrival at the start point?

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  4. Gayle - You should have been a barrister. I deliberately dodged that question, but "now it must be told."

    If you look carefully at the map you will see that the start and finish roads are within fifty yards of each other from the main road. I parked in a welcome lay-by just north of the start road thinking it was actually the second road as I had plotted and off I trogged. I keep saying I still get lost but now find out sooner; this time it took about ten minutes and as far as I was concerned that was beyond the point of no return. If I'm ever in court in trouble I will employ you to interrogate my opponent and unearth whatever is needed.

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  5. Nice one, Conrad, and I enjoyed your LEJOG boot reminiscence.

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  6. The one advantage of identifying plants as opposed to birds and insects is that they stay relatively immobile, hence the success of the Plant Snap app.

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  7. Phreerunner - Thanks. As for the boot story I am sure there can be few people out there that I know that I haven't told that story to (perhaps several times) but I couldn't resist giving it another airing.

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    BC - ...and even more excuse to stop and linger a while.

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