Читать книгу The Lune Valley and Howgills. 40 scenic fell, river and woodland walks онлайн

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Motorway and inter-city rail break out of the valley at Lowgill, leaving the river to a gently wooded passage below the lesser hills of Firbank Fell. As the gorge then opens out beyond the Howgills, the River Rawthey joins the flow, bringing with it the River Dee from Dentdale and Clough River out of Garsdale. The hills now take a step back, allowing the river to snake across a broad floodplain that extends all the way south until the valley of the Lune is abruptly constricted once more at Kirkby Lonsdale. The heights of Middleton Fell are a fine vantage, revealing a dramatic glimpse into Barbondale and across to Crag Hill and Whernside, while the dales converging on Sedbergh and the lower hills around Killington offer alternative perspectives on the river’s middle course.

Below Kirkby Lonsdale the valley opens wide again, and the bluffs on the western bank – although lower than the hills rising to the east – tend to nudge the river on its way. Things were not always so, for the Lune’s course over time has been erratic, and old banks, stranded pools and dry channels betray where it once flowed. Rivers from the limestone heart of the Yorkshire Dales enter from the east, where the flat-topped summit of Ingleborough erupts as a dominant landmark. The karst landscape of the area is noted as much for what lies below the surface as above, and an amble into the valley of Leck Beck reveals some of the portals to this hidden world. Further south lie the Bowland fells, another neglected moorland upland where walkers can experience unfettered wandering and expansive panoramas, a contrast to the tracts of ancient woodland to be found in the deep vales that drain it.