Читать книгу Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. 50 classic hillwalking routes онлайн

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The only pub in the village, The Ancient Unicorn, is said to be haunted. This 17th-century coaching inn was visited by Charles Dickens, who found inspiration in the village academy (Shaws), which he immortalised as Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby. In the north-east corner of the churchyard is the grave of William Shaw, headmaster of Shaws Academy. Dickens met Shaw, who is generally accepted to be the prototype of Wackford Squeers, the brutal headmaster at Dotheboys Hall. In the south-east part of the churchyard is the grave of George Ashton Taylor, who died while a pupil at Shaws Academy. Dickens said that he thought it was on this spot that he conceived the idea of Smike, the boy who ran away from Dotheboys Hall.

The Route

Walk up through the village street as far as the church, and then turn left into Back Lane (signed for Bowes Castle). The castle, which soon appears, stands in the north-west corner of the Roman fort.

Immediately on passing the castle, leave the lane and turn right at a gate/stile, and then go through another gate onto a signed path for the Pennine Way. Follow this as it runs around the castle boundary, through a dip and over a wall-gap stile and on across two fields to a narrow stile beside an ash tree. Keep on alongside a wall at a field boundary, cross another stile, press on beside a fence and shortly cross the top end of a sunken track and the field beyond to a lane at a Pennine Way signpost.