Bretherdale

Thursday walk with Pete -  27th October '16  

We are only walking about four miles these days as Pete is bothered with his arthritis, but today he was spritely and we almost cantered round this edge of the Lake District circuit. From the outset we had views across to the east and the two lanes of the M6 separated by several hundred yards, and we could see the endless traffic moving up and down like tiny multi-coloured matchboxes on rails.

I often wonder what opportunities I may have for photos of items other than the landscape, which although impressive in this part of the world can be taken for granted, but I know I do have some readers in different countries and hopefully I will be giving them a taste of our unique countryside. However, today did provide one or two more interesting subjects.

At the summit of our western leg we looked up to see the trig point on North Side which I visited with Pete back in January 2009 - to see the blog post  CLICK

From here we looked steeply down into Bretherdale which is a secret and pretty dale, much less known than its southern neighbour Borrowdale which I praised in a recent post.

Back at the the auction mart and its Café Ambio we enjoyed our pot of tea, and flapjack for me, and carrot cake for Pete. A group of four farmers were sat at a nearby table having jolly and apparently amusing loud conversation, but despite my familiarity with the local dialect I couldn't understand a word.

WORTH CLICKING TO ENLARGE

The distant separated lanes of the M6

My camera will do panoramas but here I took three shots and merged them with Photoshop. Click to enlarge.
Pete gives some indication of the prevailing wind and cold

I like the way the old farm buildings were nestled into the landscape

Zoom to Shap Wells Hotel near the M6

Yes, I know it's not a tractor, but I thought it may be a bit more challenging for Alan R.

Don't send your old bedstead to the dump, pack it off to Bretherdale for recycling

Typical of little used farm buildings that abound in this area

There is a cluster of houses at Bretherdale Head which hark back to "The Old Days."
Perhaps this is spoiled by the two more modern gas cartridge lamps.

Bretherdale Hall. On the market for £865,000 comprising two holiday cottage lets with an approximate  annual income of  £74,000 (so the estate agent's blurb says). It looked a bit gloomy we thought, but the internal photos look better.

Anti-clockwise. Start finish at road junction, south-east corner