2014 - England Scandinavia - Week 2 - Root Farm Cottage, Dunsop Bridge

Saturday 31 May – today is moving day.  We left West Bank Cottage, our home for the last week, and headed further north to Root Farm Cottage at Dunsop Bridge near Clitheroe located south-east of the Lake District between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. 

Having plenty of time up our sleeves, we travelled via the busy holiday coastal town of Blackpool and saw the famous, unlit, Blackpool Illuminations and Blackpool Tower.   There were people and cars everywhere so we were very happy to head to the much more tranquil village of Dunsop Bridge to our delightful and very quiet country cottage.  The Cottage is in the centre of a group of old grey-stone farm buildings.  There is an adjoining B&B that is currently closed and the managers house is empty as the couple left for another village last week. We have the place all to ourselves with no close neighbours other than sheep, calves and fluffy little baby rabbits.

Dunsop Bridge

Dunsop Bridge Village has one combined post office/café called Puddleducks, one old petrol station and only a few houses.  What it lacks in size it makes up for in charm.  There is a little brook that flows around the duck-filled lush green village park and under the narrowest quaint stone bridge. Puddleducks serves good cafe food and is a magnet for walkers and cyclists from all directions. Today is sunny so the village is busy.  By nightfall there is no-one.

Sunday 1 June - Julie's cousin, Duncan, and his wife Deanna came for morning tea and lunch today.  We had a great time catching up with them again  We last saw them two years ago when we were in the area in 2012.

Monday 2 June - It's time to get back into the walks.  The weather turned 'English' on us today, so with showers on and off all day, we decided to do a couple of walks.  The first was high up above the Lake District market town of Kendal along Cunswick Fell and Scar.  

The beautiful views were greyed out a little by the mist rain but just having the familiar feel of fresh sheep droppings squelching under our boots as we tramped through the fields was satisfying enough.

Our next planned walk was to see two ancient castles in Kendal itself.  It became apparent that the planning skills of the council in the 1200's were severely lacking in foresight.  Car parking is woefully inadequate.  We circumnavigated the town and could not find a park so we eventually gave up and went shopping at Tesco's in Clitheroe as punishment.  Returning home we packed away the groceries and decided to have a lunch in Puddleducks followed by a local walk.

The local walk in our walking bible '1001 Family Walks' was 15 klm long and rated as difficult so we drafted up a shorter 10 klm version of the walk and set off.  The rain set in, we set off the wrong way, Julie set her jaw at me, so we set off back home completing just 4.2 klm of our 10klm walk which was a subset of the 15 klm walk.  We saw lots of ewes and their lambs and quite a few pheasants as well.

Tuesday 3 June - family day again today with two more of Julie's cousins and their spouses spending the day with us.  Catching up with John and Perdita and Harry and Carole is always a lot of fun. 

Harry, Carole, Perdita, John and Julie in our cottage, Root Farm

Five Poms on a Bridge

The weather fined up to be a lovely afternoon so we went for a stroll all around Dunsop Bridge and beyond.  

Mel and Julie

Wednesday 4 June - today we visited Julie's late mother's partner, Mel.  His son Clive and his wife Margaret first invited us to their place and then for lunch at a lovely local pub in Keighley.  We then visited Mel, now 91, in his care home.  Mel was unaware we were coming and the delight on his face when he saw Julie and I was just wonderful.  It took him a while to recover and we spent a great hour or so chatting and catching up on all the news from back home.

Saying our goodbyes we returned to Clive and Margaret's for 'tea' before setting off for the 1.25 hour drive back home.  The rain had set in and the drive over the very, very narrow stone wall lined laneways was made just that little more interesting.

Thursday 5 June - the weather remained "English" overnight as we woke to a wet, windy and cold morning - despite everyone, including the weather me, saying during the week that Thursday was going to be a lovely day.  As it turned out today ended up being one of those unexpected great days.  The theme ended up being very ancient and very Roman.  

We drove about 1.5 hours northwest to the south western Lake District - the part without the lakes - and arrived at Duddon Bridge, the start of the 12klm circular walk.  We parked in a gated carpark off a side road.  

Duddon Iron Furnace

Within 50 metres we were at the site of the 1736 AD Duddon Iron Furnace.  This 280 year old beautifully preserved stone building operated for 121 years from the start of the iron age.  We spent quite a time freely exploring this impressive site.

The weather, the walk  - rain drops on the lens

Heading up hill the rain and wind became stronger so we had to don our now uniform-like waterproof jackets and pants.  Walking along the high paths we came across an abandoned slate quarry which we explored.

Inside abandoned quarry

Eventually we came to the Swinside Stone Circle.  A well preserved relic from 5000 years ago, the stone circle lies in a sheep paddock on a farmers property.  We had the place to ourselves so we sat back and had morning tea on one of the 55 stones that make up this mystical relic from the past.

Very little is understood of the reason for the approximately 1400 stone circles that can be found in England.  Swinside is by far one of the best one's we have seen coming behind Stonehenge and Avebury.

Swinside Stone Circle - about 5,000 years old

The rain slowly eased to occasional showers by the end of the walk.  Returning to our car a lot later and tireder that we expected we decided to postpone our planned afternoon walk to tomorrow and set off towards the coast to Ravenglass for lunch at a little cafe on the waters edge - well when the tide is in its on the water's edge.  We asked the owners for directions and visited the Ravenglass Roman Bathhouse.

Ravenglass Roman Bathhouse - circa 130 AD

Again located in a paddock, the Bathhouse was built around 130 AD at was once an enormous Roman fort.  The remains of the fort are quite indistinct with a train line build right through it. We heard of this bathhouse on the SBS program "Walking Through History" and Julie remembered the program, hence our visit to this fascinating site.

The road up

As we were driving around the area we saw a sign for Hardknott Roman Fort.  Again the product of "Walking Through History", we were very keen to visit this interesting location. Using our trusty TomTom we located the remains of this ancient fort perched high up in a pass.  The drive up was particularly interesting with a 30% incline for a few kilometres.  If not for TomTom taking us to a tiny plaque on a rock on the side of the road, we would have driven past - just like most of the other cars.

Hardknott Roman Fort (Mediobodgdum) - circa AD110

Clambering up over a ridge we came across the well preserved and well hidden remains of this stronghold built by Hadrian in the early second century.  The only mountain fort in Britain, it housed the 500 strong fourth Cohort of Dalmatians.  The aerial photo in Google Earth shows the perfectly square layout of this enormous fort.  We spent the rest of our day exploring this wonderful location.  Next came the 2.5 hour drive home through the remainder of Hardknott Pass, a truly spectacular white knuckle drive.

The road down Hardknott Pass

Friday 6 June - SUNSHINE!  Thinking we had woken up back at home the day dawned with clear skies, light winds and a warm (for England) day - well 9 degrees felt warmer given the sun.

As with everyone else in England we headed out (we were the early ones) to make the most of the great weather.  On the way to our very difficult to find car park start point, we came across the Jubilee Folly, which we climbed to take in the scenic coastal views - well 360 degree views actually and an ancient, now empty, burial chamber.   We then set out on the Clougha Pike walk in the Forest of Bowland - the postponed walk from yesterday.

Mud was still available

Morning tea - with a ewe and her lamb

In the distance, this walk almost continuously overlooked the city of Lancaster and beach town of Morecambe in the area south of the Lake District on the coast.  The terrain varied from beech and oak forests to high moorlands.  Late in the walk we did miss a turn due to the vague instructions and landscape, nearly becoming lost.  Recovering we transversed the moors making our own path through the course gorse until we stumbled across the vague track our instructions and map vaguely described.  The pinnacle of this walk was the summit of Clougha Pike and its trig point. 

The instructions for the walk described it as a 8.4klm, rising 320 metres, 2 hour walk.  Our actual walk was 10.3klm, rising 324 metres (that was accurate) taking 3 hours and 5 minutes (moving time) with a total time of 4 hours and 15 min with very variable terrain.  Arriving back at the car we decided that  that would do us for the day so we headed home for lunch at Puddleducks and to get ready for moving day tomorrow.  We have a long, six and a half hour drive to Penzance at the tip of Cornwall coming up.


We've noticed a couple of things this week.   As soon as we speak, locals identify us as Australian (wonder why?) and we've given directions a few times to English trampers and sightseers who've been surprised that two Australians know the walks and landmarks in the area.  At least no-one thinks we're American!

So despite the almost ever present rain and cool weather, this was a thoroughly enjoyable week of seeing Julie's relatives, ancient Roman ruins, iron age relics and a wonderful slice of English paradise in central-west England.