Walks
[ Home ] [ Up ]

COUNTRYSIDE WALKS

The walk begins at the Low Cross in front of St Lawrence’s church in Appleby; Appleby is the former county town of Westmorland, a fact reflected in its present official name, adopted after local government re-organisation in 1974. Regular assizes and sessions retained its status over Kendal.The town is famous for its Horse Fair, one of the last surviving gatherings of travelling folk. The Fair ends on the second Wednesday in June, after a week of trading. The Fair is still full of noise and colour, especially when horses are washed in the river down by the bridge. Once the Tuesday was a fair day for other livestock - 40,000 cattle being recorded at the 1781 fair. At that time, Appleby stood on a major drove road from Scotland and over the Pennines.

The story of Appleby is full of character and incident. The town returned two MPs from 1298 and, prior to the Great Reform Act of 1832, major landowners "proposed" their own candidates, thus making the election rather a formality. In 1781, William Pitt was returned as one of the two MPs; he later became Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister. Another notable political figure was Jack Robinson, MP from 1764 to 1774. He was implicated in bribery and corruption during Lord North’s government, which lost the American colonies. Although some believe him to be the person referred to in the phrase: before you can say Jack Robinson, others date it from before his lifetime.

The town’s history is dominated by one woman, who died a century before these MPs were making their names. Lady Anne Clifford was born at Skipton Castle, Yorkshire, in 1590. Her father died when she was fifteen and the resulting dispute over his inheritance continued for nearly forty years. The problem arose from his lack of faith in the ability of women, his daughter in particular, to manage the estate – a judgment on which she proved him totally wrong. Lady Anne was married twice: first to the Earl of Dorset. A Privy Council rebuke in 1616, over skirmishes between the Dorset and Cumberland households at Appleby Castle, regarding the heritage, brought her into national prominence. Her second marriage made her the threefold countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, though she is usually referred to as Clifford.

In 1643 she inherited the estate and, five years later came north again to claim her six castles. At a time when the Puritan victors in the Civil War were destroying castles once held by Royalists, Lady Anne altered, improved and rebuilt them. Old and eccentric, she defied the Roundhead threat and embarked on the restoration of Appleby Castle and other sites in the town, providing impetus for local trade and employment for her tenants.

St Lawrence’s is a fine Early English church. The base of the tower is Norman and the nave dates from the early 14th century when Appleby’s prosperity was at its peak. Fire damaged in 14th century Scottish raids, it was restored by Lady Anne. An inscription on one of the roof timbers in the Lady Chapel commemorates the event. Lady Anne died in 1676 at the age of 86 and, above her tomb in the north aisle, is an heraldic display showing the Clifford family lineage. Her mother’s marble tomb is also here. The west of the church is dominated by the organ, restored to its present site in 1976, after over a century in the north aisle. It started life in 1571 in Carlisle Cathedral, being given to the Corporation of Appleby in 1683, and is one of the oldest working organs in England.

The original 17th century cloisters outside the church were rebuilt to a design by Sir Robert Smirke in 1811. The area around the Cloisters and Low Cross has been the site of the butter market since 1203, only during1598, the worst plague year locally, was the market held elsewhere. Butter was usually sold in the cool of the Market Hall, with general stalls outside. The market continues on Saturdays, with much more than butter being available.

Walk from Low Cross towards the Moot Hall. A bull ring in the ground in the car park was last used in 1812 when bull-baiting was already illegal here. On this occasion, the bull escaped and, with a terrier gripping its nose, careered up Boroughgate, causing terror and injuries, rounded the High Cross and, finally, came to rest, frightened and exhausted, in Doomgate.

Most of Boroughgate’s buildings date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, being rebuilt in stone on much the same sites as the Norman timber buildings. The area on the upper side of the Moot Hall was the Shambles, where numerous shacks and huts of slaughterers and butchers created a foul stench, with pigs foraging among the rubbish. Victorian improvements in health and hygiene resulted in their final removal in the 1880s. The avenue of lime trees stretching up to the castle was planted by St Lawrence’s bell-ringers in 1874-6.

Walk up the left side of Boroughgate, taking time to look into the courtyard of St Anne’s Hospital – almshouses founded in 1651 by Lady Anne Clifford. It is a peaceful haven even today. The chapel is opened for visitors and contains a portrait of Lady Anne. A service is held there every Wednesday for the residents of the almshouses. The gate is locked at 9.30 every evening, by long-standing tradition. Please respect the privacy of the residents.

The High Cross at the top of Boroughgate bears the inscription Retain your loyalty, preserve your rights. Possibly erected to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy in 1659, a cheese market was held round it. The original castle was built before 1100, replaced within a century by the present Keep, later known as Caesar’s Tower. Following damage by the Scots in 1388, the Castle was uninhabited until it was rebuilt by Lady Anne in 1649-53.

Follow Shaw’s Wiend, the main road to the right from the castle. Doomgate joins at the bottom of the hill and once had a stream flowing down its centre. Ahead lies Scattergate Green, with buildings dating from before 1750. Take the minor road, Colby Lane, which runs to the right from the green. Ignore the footpath signposted shortly on your left; go beyond the new houses and then turn left down a track, which is a bridleway, signposted to Tollbar Cottage.

After a short distance on this track, keep right at the fork and continue between hedges of ash, willow, wych elm, gooseberry and others. At the end, cross the stile, go straight across the lane and over the stile; then keep to the right side of the field. Enter the next field through the gap in then old hedge and, after about 20 metres, cross the metal ladder stile to your right. Walk diagonally left to a stile, with a white-topped marker post visible across the field. Cross and walk slightly right across the field. From the brow of the hill (with the remains of the farmhouse to the left) a superb view can be seen. Behind you, Appleby lies below the Pennines and ahead is a pattern of small fields, once worked by tenants of the Lords of Appleby Castle and by small landowners after the 1820s Enclosure Acts

The rolling small hills of the area are drumlins, deposited by glaciers over the sandstone and limestone bedrocks. The soil between drumlins tends to be waterlogged while the higher ground is fertile. Continue down towards the field corner, cross the ditch and then the metal stile in the wall on the right. Turn left and cross Bandley Bridge over Hoff Beck. Cross the stile and turn left into the meadow. The path bears slightly away from the river and up through trees. Some way up, cross the stile over the fence. Keep left, staying above the wooded bank, then descend to the stile by the riverside.

Continue by the river, cross a stile and follow the fence near the river’s edge. To the right is an old, now wooded, oxbow lake - a bend cut off from the river when it established a new route in flood. Follow the fence as it bends right to the next stile, right of a copse of willow and ash growing in the remains of another oxbow lake. In early summer, a profusion of wild flowers grows here, including orchids and oxeye daisies. Keep near the river, crossing a stile in the fence, then continue by the river to a stile just before the farm buildings in the hamlet of Hoff.

At the far end of the little field, go through the farm gate on your right, noting the field barn with holes for doves high up, as well as ventilation slits. Doves and pigeons used to be an important source of meat especially in winter. Follow the lane to the left. The house on your right was built as a Methodist Chapel in 1895. As you reach the road , the New Inn can be seen to your right - once the last staging post on the Kendal to Appleby route.

Over the bridge, cross the stile on the right. Walk up the crown of the hill in the centre of the field. The limestone cliffs are an outstanding feature of the scene. The disused limestone quarry across the road is one of many along this outcrop. Quarrying was seasonal, with stone used for local building and construction work, such as the Settle-Carlisle railway during 1870-75. Limestone kilns produced lime to spread on the fields. Cross to the stile in the diagonally opposite corner. Lapwing frequent the field. Go over the stile, keep left beside the fence and hedgerow (containing hazel, blackthorn and aspen) and continue over a second stile, following the hedge. Pheasants, partridges and squirrels may be seen. At the far side of the field, cross the stile, turn left on the track (a route used by permission of the landowner) and go through Lookingflatt Farm. Proceed down the lane with the marshy Tilekiln Ponds to your left (Clay having been dug here for use in tile manufacture. At the end, cross the road and follow the signposted footpath through the gate.

Continue ahead, keeping close to the hedge on your left. Cross the stile and continue ahead, following the ditch. Continue to follow the ditch for some way after it bends right, then head for the gate straight across the field. Pass through the gate, then go slightly left across the field (where hares are often seen) heading for the shrubby dip which marks Jeremy Gill. Here a track leads down and across the little gill, which will be crossed in more dramatic circumstances later on. Ravens still circle above Raven’s Scar to the left. Keep left beside the ditch ahead until you reach a gate which leads onto the Great Ormside road.

Walkers on the longer route via Little Ormside should continue after the next two paragraphs.

Turn left up Leazes Hill. Just over the top, a railway bridge and the Great Ormside railway station are visible, with railway cottages nearby. This station on the Carlisle -Settle line operated from 1876 to 1952 and is now owned by a Merseyside school as an Outward Bound Centre. Clog soles made from, local birch were often to be seen stacked at the station in the earlier part of the 20th century. Go under the railway bridge. Great Ormside village hall, on the left, was a school from 1852 until 1968. A house on the left, dating from 1683, has a bank barn added. This distinctive Cumbrian feature allows ground access to the upper floor by building into a hillside.

Turn right from the road junction for a short distance to where the long white building, known as Bromley Green, stands on a plinth of boulders. The lintel, dated 1687, is over the entrance into the smaller original building, of which evidence remains in the eaves line and the blocked mullioned windows, replaced in the mid-18th century. The original arrangement, with animal and human housing under one roof, was opened as a reading room in 1902 and used for local entertainments. Return to the main route through the village past The Beeches. To your right is a former farm, converted into a public house in 1987, ending over a century of "dry" village.

Walkers on the shorter route should continue on the next page. Walkers on the longer route continue from here.

Turn right, then take Mill Lane very soon on your left, on the right of which stands Wild Rose Caravan Park, named for the roses which fill the hedgerow in summer. The award-winning site stands where the Ormside Hospital for Infectious Diseases was built in 1898 to house diphtheria and smallpox cases. It catered for all North Westmorland, becoming a geriatric hospital and, briefly, the home of the short-lived Pennine Rural Development Board.

Ahead is the Settle-Carlisle railway line. On the far side On the far side of the railway bridge a good view of the East Fellside is obtained, with Murton Pike and Roman Fell prominent. Follow the lane down to Helm Beck and cross by the ford or stepping stones to Ormside Mill. This ground corn from 1791 until April 1924, although used solely for animal feed from 1905. In the mid-19th century, the miller was Dinah Tiffen, the only woman among nine millers in the area at the time. The mill closed after a miller was seriously injured and the wheel and other ironworks were taken for scrap in 1941.

Take the track uphill among trees. Continue along shaded Mill Lane through woods. At the junction, bear left, with the silver birch and Scots pine of Cotbers Wood on your right. The track continues to Little Ormside. Only two farms remain in this hamlet. The larger of these, Ormside Lodge, just to the right, now raises beef cattle. The Lodge is known for its trees, including a splendid Cedar of Lebanon. This was allegedly brought back from the Middle East by General Whitehead, a former resident. As water was severely rationed on the boat journey, he kept the sapling in his hat and shared with it his daily ration of one pint of water.

Turn left for Great Ormside. The view is dominated by the fellside with considerable traffic along its foot, following the A66, the old Roman route over Stainmore. The road runs between hedges of ash and hawthorn. Where Carr Ings Lane joins from the right, notice the beech-lined drive to the Old Rectory on the left. For two centuries, the vicar of Ormside resided here, but the parish is now looked after by the vicar of St Lawrence’s in Appleby. Continue down the lane to Great Ormside.

Longer and shorter routes rejoin here.

At the road junction stands a sycamore tree surrounded by stone steps, possibly planted after the original stone cross was destroyed by Puritans during the Civil War. The cross was the site of the regular cheese and butter market. Ormside was probably a Scandinavian settlement. Once owned by the Lords of Appleby Manor, the manor of Ormside passed through various hands and was purchased by the Thanets, relations of the Cliffords, in 1770.

From the cross, great Ormside’s two distinctive buildings can be seen: Ormside Hall and St James’ church. . The Hall was originally a 14th century pele tower with walls seven feet thick, where inhabitants could withstand a short siege. The other buildings are 16th century and the Hall, once the home of the Lords of the Manor, is now a working farm. Reputedly, a secret passage leads from Hall to church but, more probably, this is a mistaken identification of a well under the kitchen floor, once a common feature. Victorian renovation work unfortunately removed many of the noteworthy internal features.

The first church here was probably in the 11th century, being dedicated before 1204 and believed to be the second oldest in the Carlisle diocese. The tower and nave were built in the late 12th century and the porch and walls contain old stones and a mutilated Roman altar. The oak roof and many of the furnishings are 17th century and the chancel was extended at this time. A double piscina (where water was emptied during the celebration of the mass) can be seen in the altar wall, with another in the south wall indicating the earlier site of the altar. A hagioscope, or Leper’s Squint, to the left of the altar afforded a view of the communion to those ostracised from the church building for any reason. It is now surrounded by the vestry, which has a beacon window looking out over the ford across the Eden. A lamp burned in this window each night to guide travellers who might wish to make use of the church’s right of sanctuary during the troubled times of the border raids. The Hilton chapel in the north aisle probably dates from earlier than the 1723 coat of arms hanging there. It was the schoolroom until a school was built in 1852.The part natural, part-artificial mound on which the church stands has yielded some important archaeological finds. In 1823 an Anglo-Saxon cup was unearthed and donated to the Yorkshire Museum. One of the leading artistic items of the Dark Ages, with obvious Celtic influence, it probably dates from 800-850 AD . A display in the Hilton chapel gives more information. Other finds include a hoard of brass and pewter, hidden by the Pickerings during the Civil War. Various items from a tenth century warrior’s grave are now in the care of Tullie House Museum in Carlisle.

From the churchyard, there is an excellent view of Ormside Viaduct, 200 yards long and 90 feet high. One of the piers stands in the River Eden, a major engineering feat when it was built in 1870-75, to designs by J.Throstle. This is the southernmost of the Carlisle-Settle line’s crossings of the River Eden.

Return from the church to the village cross and turn right along the farm lane. After the track goes under the railway, cross the concrete ladder-stile on the left into a small field. Go straight ahead, then left along a lonning, through the gateway at the end, turn right and walk along the field edge, dropping into the steep-sided gill and across the little wooden bridge. Go over the stile and walk through trees with a deeply cut stream on the left. Descend to the wooden footbridge across Jeremy Gill. When first crossed a few hundred yards upstream, the Gill was insignificant but here it is rejuvenated – cut deep into the sandstone from its former course following a lowering of the River Eden to which it flows. From the bridge, follow the fence up to the right and cross a stile in the fence to the right.

Follow the path with Lookingflatt and Wormrigg Woods below. Look out for goat willow, ash, European larch and sycamore. Follow the waymarked path on steps down the bank, after some distance, walking through woodland where wild garlic grows in the spring and fallen trees are covered with fungi such as Trametes versicolor. Emerge by the river, which often floods over the easily eroded sandstone. Common frogs are sometimes seen among the tree roots. In spring, lesser celandines and snowdrops grow here. The path continues for some distance through woodland, from which it emerges via a stile into a field. Go straight on to a mature plantation containing oak and beech, which is entered by a stile and a bridge.

Leave this woodland at the far side by a stile and follow the river, which flows down to Appleby in a long sweep. The boundary to your right contains stiles allowing access for fishing (by permit only). At the end of the second field, cross the stile at the left and follow the fenced path, which ends in a kissing gate. To your left is Castle bank and Scattergate Green beyond it.

To your right is the ford across the Eden, with Jubilee Bridge beside and Bongate Mill on the opposite bank. The original bridge, commemorating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, was destroyed in floods in 1968 and the new, higher bridge was built in 1970. The area is now a popular picnic site. Downstream, the castle towers above the Eden with a sandstone quarry opposite, which yielded stone for local building. Upstream, salmon can be seen jumping in the weir in autumn. This is the knick-point, where a small rock movement aeons ago lowered the river’s downstream course, causing many tributaries upstream, such as Jeremy Gill, to incise themselves deeper into the sandstone.

Cross Jubilee Bridge to Bongate corn mill, an imposing three-storey building dating in its present form from 1838, although present on this site from much earlier. The weir - possibly on a Roman frame - provided an easy point for taking off water for the mill race. The mill’s roof is characteristic of many in Cumbria, giving width and the solidity required in a building where the walls are subject to considerable vibration. An unusual feature of the modern Bongate mill was its three identical wheels, parallel within the building but on three separate shafts of which no more than two worked at any time. Each was 16 feet in diameter, 3 feet wide and set within a finely designed wheelpit with rimmed sandstone axleholes. As a large waterwheel could turn up to five pairs of millstones, one of the wheels may have driven accessory machinery such as conveyors or hoists.

Before continuing up the hill, look at the Primrose Stone. This is one of a series of ten sculptures located on the banks of the Eden from its source in Mallerstang to the Solway Firth. The sculptures were commissioned for the Millennium, each being designed by a different artist.

Walk up the road past the 17th century cottages on the right and St Michael’s Church on the left. A hog-back Viking tombstone (not visible to the public) suggests that a church existed here before 1000AD. Early charters gave St Michael’s precedence over St Lawrence’s, founded in the new borough in the late 12th century.

Bongate Green, with its coaching house and cottages, was probably the focal point of Pre-Norman Appleby, linking the ford with the Roman road heading north. Turn left along this ancient route, the A66 until the bypass was opened. On your right the 16th century Royal Oak stands on the site of a twelfth century building and has been an inn for over 200 years. Walk up the hill with the cemetery on your left, reaching the splendidly ornate facade of Beechcroft Nurseries on the right. Descending the hill, pass a Jehovah’s Witness’ Kingdom Hall in the sandstone outcrop on the right.

Buildings that once housed St Michael’s Church Institute are on the right and opposite them is a cottage dated 1695, which was once the local blacksmith’s home; the smithy stood beside it.

At Howgate Foot, the road opens out into the area known as The Sands. The former magistrate’s court stands on the right, the building having been erected as the Shire Hall in the 1770s. The police station beside it was once the county gaol, built in 1771. The last building on your left before the bridge was built in 1639 as a House of Correction, where criminals walked a treadmill. The Victorian terraced houses opposite the bridge lead up to the station and testify to the town’s growth in the 19th century.

Turn left across the bridge, built in 1889 at the Corporation’s expense. The first bridge here was medieval and a chantry chapel formerly spanned the west end, being used as a gaol in the 17th-18th centuries. Here Nayler and Howgill, well-known Quaker preachers, were imprisoned in the mid-17th century. Continue down Bridge Street to the Low Cross to complete the walk.