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

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Climb away to a stile a short distance up on the left and head out across the hillside to meet a low earthen dyke. It was part of a boundary enclosing the valley and was raised by monks from the small Gilbertine priory at Ravenstonedale to protect their timber and fishing rights. The hillside terraces above are lynchets, which were created by medieval strip ploughing. Follow the dyke past the end of a stand of timber above a narrowing of the gorge. Later, the path loses height across an open field, where low grass pillow-mounds are the remains of conies or warrens, built during the Middle Ages to encourage breeding rabbits to provide a ready source of meat. At the far end, posts mark the path down a steep bank to a footbridge across a side-stream from Hag Mire.

Walk up to join a rising track towards Park House, but after 100m branch down beside a fence. Through gates, cross a second track coming from a bridge and carry on past a byre beside the river. Through a gate on the right by a footbridge join the adjacent track and follow it beneath the road bridge into Ravenstonedale. Reaching the main lane, cross Coldbeck Bridge, and at the junction immediately beyond bear right between buildings, from which a path leads across a playing field back to St Oswald’s Church.