Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Glencoyne in low cloud

16/10/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureGlencoyne Farm and Ullswater 16 Ocober 2015
​Glencoyne is a busy working farm  close to Ullswater, a beautiful location. The bull bellowed  among his cows , with calves being ear-tagged in a pasture. I remembered drinking coffee in  the farmhouse kitchen and learning from Sam and Can Hodgson about farming here. Gathering their sheep, they see voles leaping in the tussocks at sunset, braving the hunting kestrel at Glencoyne Head.  We quickly climbed into low cloud and the atmosphere was  full of moisture.  After weeks of fine weather this  might have been disappointing.  But walking in cloud has a magic of its own.

​Vistas were lost.  Beside our path hummocks  of colourful sphagna appeared .  We lunched by a sheep rub, a crescent worn into the peat and  hung with tussocks of deer grass, cross-leaved heath and  heather.  A toad crawled through the sedges, a warty jewelled toad  by a sprig of heather the colour of garnet.  An unwary caterpillar rejected a blob of home-made chutney that somehow landed on foliage!  Thick -spread on walnut bread it is delicious.  We thought so, if the caterpillar did not. 
left to right: sheep rub, sphagnum moss, heather, cross-leaved heath, caterpillar, common toad
​The sedge deer grass was lambent: flames flickering over dark peat.  I could tell my camera wasn’t seeing light and colour as I did  but the  glory of it will linger  in my mind’s- eye.   Conditions deteriorated.   Should we go for Sheffield Pike?  Time for micro-navigation and reliance on compass bearings.  Not my compass bearings, I had a trusty mountain-guide.   I know and love Sheffield Pike  but when all you can see is a cluster of rocks in mist it is bewildering.  Maybe the summit cairn, maybe not.  The world closed down. There was only  the ground beneath our feet.  Cloud cocooned us, poised somewhere between a frisson of danger ( remember those steep screes and crags to the south) and the thrill of solitude. I have been here before.  The walking- in -cloud experience I mean. And I love it. 
Left to right: bilberry, devil's-bit scabious, lichen 
​
Coming off the summit  we made  for the col between Sheffield Pike and Glenridding Dodd and stopped for a mouthful of  fruit cake,  fortifying on a chilly day.  The rocks at our feet  showed a lichen  with scarlet fruit-bodies.  A kestrel  was hunting, hovering, scanning, over Glencoyne Wood. A hint of sun caught the chestnut plumage of its mantle.  In the headwaters of Mossdale Beck the ground glowed golden with grasses and  cross-leaved heath.  The jagged  Black Crag emerged as we descended, and Heron Pike. We made our way down through rock and heather and sedges to the wall with a smoot or hog hole.  Sheep only , thank you.  There was a single flower of devil’s- bit scabious,  and rosy bilberry leaves- a lovely autumn motif.  At the col, we took the track which heads east by Mossdale Beck on the fringe of Glencoyne Wood 
A different habitat and the magic of an autumn wood.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3