Eden Way upstream 2

Friday 31st May 2024 - Cargo to Carlisle

I found The Sands Car park on the Internet, but, as is my wont, I worried that it may be full when I arrived. Such trivialities seem to assume larger proportions as one ages. In times past I probably wouldn't have even booked the taxi until I got there. So I arrived about 08:15 having booked Radio Taxis again for 09:00.

From: This web site:

"The Sands Leisure Centre in now open following a £27 million redevelopment project in partnership with Carlisle City Council. The brand new centre boasts first-class leisure and swimming facilities, as well as an entertainment venue on a single site in the heart of Carlisle. As a charitable, social enterprise and working in partnership with Carlisle City Council..." 

So I was able to use their toilets and conquer a perplexing coffee machine before the taxi arrived spot on time.

The short nettlefest footpath from Cargo took me back down to the well trodden, grassy river path for a couple  of fields but then through two long fields of hard going, knee high grass.

You may recall me finding a pristine football in the middle of nowhere on my previous post, and now there was another smaller one in the middle of my path. It all reminded me of the TV series The Prisoner filmed at  Portmeirion... thinks "it may be worth watching again if I can track it down." You never know what a walk is going to throw up for you.

I was now on gentle riverside paths, easy going, warm sunshine and the place to myself, but all far  from my greater enjoyment of communing with the higher hills, however, one must be thankful and make the most of what's available.

I could see the villlage of Grinsdale across the river and their church with unusual architecture arousing my curiosity.  Back home I researched

It seems the church is closed for worship and visitors. It is dedicated to St. Kentigern who is patron saint of Glasgow. I found an interesting website which you can visit for more information but I gleaned the following snippet which amused me.

The attributes of Saint Kentigern, more popularly known by his pet name Mungo, are remembered in a nonsense rhyme taught to Glasgow school children about the city’s
Coat of Arms:

This is the bird that never flew
This is the tree that never grew
This is the bell that never rang
This is the fish that never swam

 The Bird commemorates the pet robin owned by St Serf, which was accidentally killed by monks who blamed it on Kentigern. Kentigern took the bird in his hands and prayed over it, restoring it to life again.

The Tree is the symbol of another incident in Kentigern’s childhood. Left in charge of the holy fire in St Serf’s monastery, he fell asleep and the fire went out. However, he broke off some frozen branches from a hazel tree and miraculously rekindled the fire.

The Bell may have been given to Kentigern by the Pope. The original bell, which was tolled at funerals, no longer exists and was replaced by the magistrates of Glasgow in 1641. The bell of 1641 is preserved in the People’s Palace.

The Fish was one caught by Kentigern in the Clyde. When it was slit open, a Ring belonging to the Queen of Cadzow was miraculously found inside it. The Queen was suspected of intrigue by her husband, as she had parted with his ring. She implored Kentigern for help, and he found and restored the ring to her in this way.

Saint Kentigern 

I passed under he Waverley Viaduct which carried the now disused railway from Edinburgh to Carlisle. There was a campaign to open it as a footpath some years ago but I can't find any recent information. I guess it has suffered from the many financial cuts of recent years unless anybody can tell me differently. My photo with the large pylons behind is a stark reminder of man's impact on our countryside.

Jut before the public road running into Carlisle I was back to nature again watching about thirty rooks having a bathing party on the edge of the river, and then many of them roosting high up above in trees, black intrusions against the green, and making plenty of noise. 

A short stretch of road walking in the suburbs of Carlisle followed before branching off on a tarmac suburban footpath through a municipal park and then skirting the impressive Carlisle Cricket Club ground. At the far end a massive archaeological dig is underway and I chatted to one of the volunteers. It seems that at first they had found a modest Roman bath house, but it became ever larger. Now they believe it to be a large kind of country house where the great and the good would have assembled as the needs of the close by Hadrian's Wall were attended to. It sounded to me like shades of Cliveden and the Profumo Affair.

A little descent ducked under the A7 river bridge bringing me back to its other side, and now in the tumultuous traffic and city hubbub a short walk back over the bridge had me back to Sands Centre and my car. That was a better walk than the first stage from the mouth of the Solway.

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Try as I have I can't standardise the font irregularities. Blogger having one of its days.

Arriving back at the river from Cargo

Tough going through long grass for a couple of fields before getting back to comfortable riverside walking

Is somebody walking the Eden Way and dropping mysterious brightly coloured balls every so often?

St. Kentigern church across the river where Hadrian's wall path runs.

Bridge over A689

Waverley railway bridge, disused. Man's "mastery" of the environment

Rooks bathing party

Who are these peole?

Rooks a roosting

Unusual architecture. Notice the trees shape in sympathy with the roof lines.

The old and the new. Carlisle Castle and the main line railway

Rickerby Park

Carlisle cricket ground. The archaeology site is beyond the tree at right of photo

Supposed Roman house of pleasure?

The start of my next section beyond the A7 bridge

Don't bother to try and read if you don't want. It just amused me imagining the arguments and politics that went on about whose names would be included and whose not

 

Pink = previous section. Green for today. Blue for Eden Way