Glencoyne 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.
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.
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