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

36 страница из 44

At the top, go left through a gate and follow the boundary away. To the south, beyond Greenside Tarn, the northern slopes of the Howgills rise to Green Bell, from whose flank springs Dale Gill, the Lune’s most distant tributary from the sea. At a protruding stub of wall, part-way along the second field, swing right through a squeeze-gap towards a cottage. Wind left and right out of the fields onto a narrow lane.

Follow it left for ¼ mile (400m), leaving after the second cattle-grid for a stile on the right. Pass behind High Greenside Farm, crossing a succession of fences to a wall-stile at its far side. Over that go right above Greenside Beck. Entering the third field by a barn, turn left to a bridge spanning the stream and leave the pasture along a drive from a cottage. Newbiggin-on-Lune is signed right beside the stream past a well-preserved lime kiln.

The 18th century was an age of agricultural improvements, which included the use of lime as a fertiliser. Thousands of field kilns were built up and down the country, in which limestone was burned using culm, a poor quality coal, as a fuel. The process took a couple of days, after which the quicklime was raked out and left to weather before being laboriously spread over the fields to counteract acidity in the soil.