From Ireby

 Saturday 14th March 2026

Daughter J (High Horse) is moving.

The straight line from her present flat to the new address measures 246ft. on Memory Map. If you walk the tarmac it is 792ft.

Much of the removal has already been done but the larger items will be tackled manually by professionals on Friday, with my contribution being financial.

This Saturday morning I returned the carpet cleaner I had borrowed and was sandbagged into fixing a device to a wall. I could see that J was about to embark on fitting a catflap to the rear door. Having had experience of fitting two of those myself involving DIY complications unimaginable before starting I made myself scarce. Back home I had things to do but the weather was perfect for walking. My preference is to set off early, but it was now about midday. I had a  look at Memory Map on my computer and unusually found a tempting little not previously walked circular in an instant. Off I went.

Parking in Ireby is no problem. If you want a good example of the many attractive villages in the northern dales this will do with all the atmosphere of little change from the16/17th centuries, and even complete with an attractive stream running through arising from the slopes of Gragareth to the north-east, one of the classic dales peaks.

I had identified one of those old dales lanes running north from the village rowards the hills and designated as "other routes" by green dots by OS. Their legend suggests contacting local authorities or whatever for access information, not that I had any concerns. However later on I was given to wondering as I was passed by three motor cyclists.

The lane proved to be a combination of track and stream, but with care it was possible to keep feet dry. The northern end joined the minor road, the right turn to go over Leck Fell and ending as a cul de sac, but giving walking access to Gragareth. As well as Gargareth there were enticing views to Barbon Fell, and Cragg Hill.  I turned left and followed steeply down the tarmac with the attractive ravine like valley of Leck Beck way down to my right. Lapwings I am glad to say were calling. A cyclist stopped and we had a good chat about the many long distance routes he has cycled and his upcoming plan for a three stage route from Scandinavia and finishing in Portugal as far as I could understand from what he was saying.

That glorious weather promised at the outset more or less held, but there were rain clouds passing over which intermittently showered me with sparse spatterings of rain drops for short periods, insufficient to necessitate donning a waterpoof.

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I have just almost finished typing this post and was motivated to research Leck Hall and found I had walked almost exactly this same route with Pete back in July 2018 !

So much for me discovering a "not previously walked" gem.

https://conradwalks.blogspot.com/search?q=Shuttleworth

That post gives much more information about Leck Hall, and a previous old school passed on the road from Leck to Ireby.

Ireby, this and below. A good examlple of dales villages with little change over the centuries

I managed to obey the sheepdog's command of "away"circling to the right round the pseudo lake amd then tiptoeing round the  bit of solid grass at the foot of the gatepost. No wet feet.

The start of my targeted lane

Leck Hall

The motorcyclists at the emergence of the lane onto tarmac

Barbon Fell and Cragg Hill

The long steep descent to Leck and then back to Ireby

This looked quite unusual to me and perhaps a good one for Alan, but...

...this will be much closer to his heart I guess

Leck Church

Anticlockwise from Ireby

In the steps of Mole - Chipping with BC

 Wednesday 4th March 2026

Spring commandeered Mole in Wind in the Willows:

“O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously...

and so it was with me receiving a call from "imperious"Bowland Climber ( good word not quite appropriate,for BC but I couldn't resist it) on Tuesday evening uggesting a walk on the morrow knowing I had the dreary job earmarked to replace a rotten threshold on my front door - there was no hesitation in my acceptance.

BC has his arm in a sling but apart from being unable to drive he is managing well.

Chipping was our starting point. Steady climbing on a well laid concrete road through parkland took us to Laund Farm where we found sheep sheering in progesss, and we chatted a while with the sheerers.  In an animal shed there was also a flock of Blue Faced Leicster sheep who despite being well provided for in their quarters were straining to crop the grass they could just reach on the outside of their enclosure.

The parkland dates  to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when it was owned by the monarch as a deer park and now remains as a pleasing quintessential example of part of the makeup of our countryside..

Eventually the concrete road finished and we had a short trek across upland tussocky ground under the foot of Parlick and its associated Bowland ridge. It was heartening to witness curlew and lapwing in some numbers and overall on this walk much more bird life than I have seen elsewhere for some time, although I suppose the start of spring  has them  all tuning up. Unfortunately there were no hen harriers, they have been systematically exterminated here.

A descent took us to stepping stones over Leagram Brook where care was traken by both of us. Later on during  a call from BC's son BC mentioned this esposode, and with BC's fairly recent dramtic entanglement with is kitchen furniture BC's offspring are trying to execrise some control and questioned the wisdom of walking with me.

Pleasant quiet road walking took us back into Chipping and a look round the church including the grave of Elizabeth Dean. In 1835 Elizabeth was thwatred in love. Her intended bailed out and married another. On the day of the wedding Elizbeth hung herself from a high window of a building opposite the church  entrance. The first thing the newly marrried erstwhile boyfriend would see on exiting the church would be the sobering site of Elizabeth hanging on high. Elizabeth's ws well liked in Chipping and despite  the taking of one's own life  denying the burying in consecrated ground, public opinion prevailed over the clergy and Elizabeth was buried in the church graveyard. Her ghost is said to be seen from time to rime.

That was a most enjoyable walk and finished off in style with BC treating us to  ten-out-of-ten coffee and lemonn drizzle cake to die for at the excellent café in Chipping.

A contraption for unfurling the rtoll of fencing wire with a teactor we deduced.

Royal parkland from the 14th century.

The eastern end of Longridge Fell

Any slower and I weould have been static.

Blue Faced Leicester sheep - The grass is always geeener..?

It was our turn next after this zoom shot from some distance

With his other arm out of action BC has to be extra careful. 

Parlick

The old H J Berry chairmaker factory. The felled timber for chair construction was hauled from wagons on the road by the crane. Note also the steps down to the stream in the forground, presumably where washing was done?

Elizabeth Dean's grave

1675. It surprises me that the average height of we humans has increased so much in such a relatively short period considering the eons of time for evolution. These doors must be not much more than four and a half feet high.

Anti-clockwise from Chipping

"There's such an air of spring about it"

Tuesday 24th February 2026

Amongst numerous recent diary entries I have had a hearing test and been given hearing aids. That stemmed from not being able to assimilate conversations in the environment of a two hundred guest wedding between Christmas and New Year, otherwise I can hear pretty well in normal one to one convesations, and I can hear the birdies sing. But the hearing test, and its science said I was severely deaf in one ear, and well on the way with the other - all very strange.

Although I haven't recently had the good fortune to emulate Ella  -  "I can hear a lark somewhere sing about it" - I have been able to hear more of birdsong in general when I had thought that was at a satisfactory level before. On top of that I can hear the carpet scrunching under my feet and any rustling or crinkly paper emitts an incredibly high pitched kind of crackliness.

So yesterday at last I was able to take a break from my model making ( currently a Red Arrows Hawk trainer) and head off on a long awaited walk.

The appearance of crocus, snowdrops and daffs  is a short lived event that I did not want to miss and I was reasonably well rewarded.

 

All Saints church, Underbarrow

Challenging graveyard terrain?

Leaving the tarmac

Crocus and snowdrops

Zoom to Underbarrow village

I imagined a giant had been employed as a wall builder - Tranthwaite Hall farm

Down to a ford where...

I thought I was going to get wet feet, but...

...saviour.

Lindreth Brow cottage. I was a couple of hundred yards off route but that error serendipitously provided a perfect lunch spot just the other side of the far hedge, see next photo

Anticlockwise from Chapel Bridge

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I saw Ella st St. George's Hall in Bradford in the early sixties perhaps a bit earlier than the time of this recording - a highlight of my lifetime.

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