Uplifting views on Pennine trip (From Craven Herald)

Uplifting views on Pennine trip

12:05pm Thursday 19th January 2012 in From The Farm By Liz Hird

It is rather cold in our unit at the moment. We have got heat, in the form of several small radiant heaters, but it’s a bit chilly as soon as you move away from the glow.

We are all togged up with plenty of layers, and if I am working at the computer I have even resorted to putting my fingerless gloves on! It seems a long time since we were sitting out at the back door enjoying the sunshine.

On Saturday, Stuart and I went over to Cockermouth to check on and dose the horned gimmer hoggs that went away in November.

We set off about 9am and the early sunshine was making the frost covered grass and walls glisten. Everywhere was dusted with a covering of frost, the sky was a washed-out greeny blue, tinged with pinks, and criss crossed with vapour trails from passing planes.

The view from the top of Fleet Moss was breathtaking with wisps of mist hanging in the valley bottom, the low sun picking out the features of the surrounding hills, the rocks, the potholes, the rushes. You never see it like that on wet gloomy days or in high summer as everything looks flat. It’s surprising how much the view changes just with the light.

The journey, which takes about two hours, follows a picturesque route. From Hawes, we made our way north joining the A66 at Brough and then followed this former Roman road west across the Pennines all the way to Cockermouth, passing through Penrith and Keswick and skirting Bassenthwaite lake.

Raymond and Peter Robinson were waiting for us with the hoggs already in, so after a quick cup of coffee we got on with the job – checking feet and trimming overgrown hooves, cutting off any brambles or wire that had got tangled in fleeces and dosing for intestinal worms.

When we went out to get the second batch in, Raymond pointed out several local landmarks, including the 1,000-acre Broughton Moor dump that was sold by the MoD a few years ago for £1. Plans to regenerate the old munitions dump are now under way.

The farm stands on a ridge high above the river Derwent that rises high in the Lakeland fells under Scafell Pike. In the nearby town, the Derwent is joined by the river Cocker before flowing on into the Irish sea at Workington. The confluence of these two rivers bringing water off the nearby fells means that Cockermouth, as we saw a few years ago, is very susceptible to flooding.

Job done, we were invited into the house for a welcome lunch.

We were soon back on the long road home. and by the time we dropped into the top of Langstrothdale, the sun had slipped below the horizon and the valley was disappearing fast into the grey nothingness of the late winter afternoon.