Category Archives: United Kingdom

Wark

Posted on by
Reply

With the derailment at Shap, I had to come to Wark via Leeds and Newcastle, which gave me the opportunity to have a cup of coffee amongst the Burmantofts splendour of The Centurion bar on Newcastle station. I’ve come for walking and star-gazing, but the weather may rain on both those ambitions.

I arrived shortly after 2, dumped my case and set off to explore Wark and look at the Tyne (high and fast-flowing). I picked up a leaflet at reception and ended up doing a circuit on minor roads with only a camera, an umbrella and a torch. Fortunately the weather stayed dry and I got back before dark, having discovered another disused railway line (the North British Railway). It feels satisfying to be exploring somewhere new.

Sizergh Castle

Posted on by
Reply

I almost went to Sizergh on Monday, but the castle itself was closed and that was what I have been meaning to visit. It closes for the season at the end of this week, so – even though it’s half term – today was my only chance unless I was going to let the wish dangle for another couple of years.

I should have chosen my time better, but heigh ho. (The kids were fine; it was the adults I could have done without!) Sizergh Castle is a pele tower with a later Tudor house. The Strickland family have lived there for centuries and given their name to a few pubs and streets. The castle is quite small and most of the visitable rooms are panelled in what is now very dark wood. The panels of the inlaid chamber were sold to the V&A at the end of the 19th century, but they have found their way back. Some wonderful plasterwork ceilings and lots of portraits – in some cases blurring time by showing side by side the grandparents as young people and their grandchildren as elderly, as if illustrating Einstein’s theory of relativity and Burnt Norton simultaneously.

Grange to Levens

Posted on by
Reply

As I listened to the heavy rain last night, I wondered if my plan of walking over two limestone (slippery when wet) outcrops from Grange to Kendal was a sensible one. But I’d set my alarm, checked the bus timetable and had my sandwiches, so I wasn’t going to be put off.

At Grange-over-Sands I checked the poetry post – again while en route for a bakewell slice – and decided to let that be my guide. So my route skirted the foot of Whitbarrow Scar and avoided Scout Scar completely by turning south at Levens through Brigsteer Woods. A good, circumspect walk: “not fast, not slow, but sure”.

Saltaire

Posted on by
Reply

Leeds, Shipley, Saltaire, a walk around Shipley Glen and along the Aire and the canal – then back to Saltaire, Shipley, Leeds. A lovely day, and I discovered the Shipley tramway. It was so short a line that I couldn’t imagine its purpose. I have since discovered that it is a funicular tramway built simply, in bygone times, to take people to funfair attractions at the top of the hill.

Ferens art gallery

Posted on by
Reply

A fleeting visit to Ferens art gallery, where I looked at some old favourites. The Blue Seascape is one I hadn’t seen before. I was wondering, though, if a stormy sea could ever be that blue. “Eileen Reading” has the air of a Gwen John painting in its indistinctness.

And then the normal ride to the docks, where we passed wind turbine shafts being loaded onto something or other (did it have its own engine or would it be towed?) presumably to be installed offshore.

Ilkley to Skipton

Posted on by
Reply

I fancied a long walk, and Ilkley to Skipton fitted the bill. The weather was grey and even mizzly at times, so I stayed cool and had the wind behind me. I walked along the low northern edge of the moor, noting the “swastika stone” and admiring the millstone outcrops. To avoid the steep descent towards Addingham, I turned south to find the Doubler stones – wind-eroded sandstone pillars topped with harder gritstone. I looped round to Addingham and then picked up the direct path to Skipton and the train back to Leeds.