Wednesday 1st. June 2022
Walk 23. The Lune Valley and Howgills. Dennis and Jan Kelsall. Cicerone Press.
From arising this morning I found myself suffering from Delhi-belly but only mildly and decided not to let that hinder my plans. After breakfast I donned my trail shoe/boots and they seemed uncommonly tight, "have my feet swollen" I thought? Setting off from the carpark at Devil's Bridge I still didn't feel good, kind of wobbly.
The River Lune upstream is only glimpsed on occasions through the growth of mature trees, but it is a powerful fast moving entity and all the more dramatic for permitting only limited picture window views.
A signpost pointed upstream promising Ruskin's View, a feature often referred to in literature and art documentaries arising from a mystical ambience attached to the view by the art critic Ruskin (1819-1900.) Whilst this is undoubtedly a fine view I could never quite understand why Ruskin found it particularly, and somewhat metaphysically, attractive, but then I have never seen it for real, so anticipation was sparked.
At the foot of Radical Steps.I think my morning affliction was telling. As I ascended the non-ergonomic arrangement of the steps they seemed to upset my balance and as well as being badly out of breath I was glad to use the accompanying handrail.
From the Internet:
The "Radical Steps" in Kirkby Lonsdale lead down from the churchyard of St Mary's Church down to the banks of the River Lune, near Ruskin's View. The steps were built in 1820 for Dr Francis Pearson, who had a reputation as a political radical, to divert the existing public footpath that ran through his garden![1] at There was a lot of opposition to the building of steps, which thereafter became locally known as the "Radical Steps".
At the top I was confronted by huge locked gates with notices attached informing me that due to path erosion the continuation to Ruskin's view was closed.
I diverted through the churchyard to emerge in the deserted early morning streets of Kirkby Lonsdale with flags and bunting hanging listlessly in anticipation of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on Saturday.
A tedious long stretch of road walking followed and my feet were hurting. Even after rejoining the book's route road walking continued for most of its remainder. I had previously added a section to the west to extend into a seven miler. The footpath from Hop House on my extension turned out to be an unpleasant cow trodden and boggy field with some quite sharp ascent and here I was again out of breath and still feeling mildly unwell. As I emerged onto a farm track I was saddened to see an array of dead moles on the fence. I have ranted before about this and still find inexplicable some people's desire for killing things with little logical reason. I say that because I researched the subject a while ago and was not convinced about the bucolic reasons given for this practice.
The track took me to the pathless A65 road which I followed with extreme peril for two hundred yards dodging non-stop high speed traffic.
Once gaining a farm track the rest of this walk was much more enjoyable leading through pleasant lanes and fields back to Kirkby Lonsdale, and I was thankful for my own addition to what I reckon is a second rate route route if only followed from the book.
I
 |
| Devil's Bridge, Kirkby Lonsdale, scene of tragic tomb-stoning from time to time |
 |
| River Lune just above the bridge. Heavily wooded and difficult to photograph |
 |
| Interesting and attractive (to me) riverside architecture |
 |
| Interest aroused regarding Ruskin's view which is often alluded to in literature and art documentaries. |
 |
| I struggled up here |
 |
| Ruskin's View path closed due to erosion, see next photo |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
 |
| Norman arch, Kirkby Lonsdale church. Unfortunately it is now pretty badly weathered |
 |
| Early morning in Kirkby Lonsdale - flags for Queens Platinum Jubilee on Saturday |
 |
| Now walking out of Kirkby Lonsdale on the road after being diverted from Ruskin's View on the river |
 |
| This looks like a modern replica - not sure? |
 |
| There was much activity at Deansbiggin farm - tractors on the move |
 |
| Zoom to cows on hill that caught my eye. They were over half a mile away |
 |
| Unusual kind of sign, I've not seen similar before in all my wanderings. No Internet information found |
 |
| Moles, definitely dead - nasty! |
 |
| Any guesses? The display says "Zero." I think that is a camera on the white pole |
 |
| A couple of hundred yards of this before emerging into verdant fields |
 |
| Ingleborough aligned with the notch. I'll be dressing up for the solstice at Stonehenge next? |
 |
| Route in book blue then pink from KL. My addition the blue continued to the west. Green, the enforced road diversion from Ruskin's View |
Oh, dear. Glad you are OK.
ReplyDeleteBC - Thanks for your phone call. As you mention I am now feeling much better. With experience gained over a lifetime's trudging I can usually tell from the OS map what the attributes of a route may be. For this one I had doubts at the planning stage and should have followed my intuition and used valuable time for something more rewarding, but then something worthy would have been marred by my below par constitution on that day.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see, from the prior comments, that you're feeling better.
ReplyDeleteI got as far as the photo of the radical steps, which I recognised, before my foggy brain finally processed the name 'Kirkby Lonsdale' and accessed my memories of the place. I was unaware of Ruskins View, and whilst a pretty enough location, I don't recall going into raptures over it when we were there.
(Google has, in its wisdom, changed the comment interface that I'm getting from the usual comment box. As a result, I can't see what I'm typing. I can scroll down to see if I've just mistyped a load of nonsense, but as soon as I tap another key, it goes back to the top of the comment and I'm typing blind again. What progress, on a feature that worked perfectly well as it was.)
Gayle - Blogger must have some kind of algorithm that makes random changes at random times regardless of efficacy or otherwise.
DeleteBetween you and Bowland Climber there are few places I've been that you both haven't.
Come to think about it thee is no such thing as a bad walk. I will go along with your 'not so good'
ReplyDeleteBC - Ah! The irrepressible Bowlandclimber positivity.
ReplyDeleteBlogger's new comment system is a direct encouragement to do what I've always done - write and revise the comment on Notebook or Word and then copy/paste. The best insurance against losing the whole damn piece to a spasm of algorithm wriggle.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I must add losing, say, 150 - 200 words in this way can be a useful check on one's ability to remember. That is: stop cursing immediately, achieve calmness, ask "What was my first sentence?", and proceed. I've surprised myself. At 86 my memory system has, as might be expected, all the appeal of my 1950s Austin Cambridge, easily the worst car I ever owned. And yet sometimes I've retrieved quite lengthy comments. What's more as each resurrected sentence follows another there's a mounting thrill of the chase. "Hey, I'm going to do this." The key is to believe retrieval is possible at the outset.
Ruskin is famous mainly for his architectural mammoth, The Stones of Venice. I picked up volume one from a secondhand-book stall but fell at an early hurdle when I realised how many thousands of words lay ahead. More recently his character figured in a movie which centred rather disgustingly on the first night of his honeymoon.
I referred to him in Works Well many moons ago. He was against rock-climbers for turning the Alpine peaks into what he called "greasy poles". Aesthetes rarely go a'climbing.
It sounds as if Mark Sutcliffe's KS route has the edge over this one. I've enjoyed catching up with your postings, and BC's, whilst listening to a remarkably stress free TMS!
ReplyDeleteAnd the blogger comment system is working fine for me in Chrome - it actually seems to be an improvement!!!
Phreerunner - I couldn't agree more. I had already done a large part of that walk on the Lunesdale Ramble and also on a walk from home to Kirkby Lonsdale I did a while ago. Generally preferring to find new ground I opted for this one instead. You can't win 'em all.
ReplyDelete------------------------------------------
RR - I enjoy the work of good artists but I tire of their own explanations full of gobbledygook and metaphysical fantasy and Ruskin is no exception. Everything I have read or heard of him indicates an unpleasant person who gained more power snd influence than he have.
My last sentence: "SHOULD have"
Deletethose C19 radicals sound very much like our very own C21 versions- always eager to make life difficult for others, but very protective of their own comforts and possessions. I could name a few - a high density can be found in NW3 . . .
ReplyDeletegimmer -Rien ne change!
ReplyDelete'Plus ça change -
ReplyDelete