Gateposts indicate geology at Smardale Gill Heading off Smardale Fell, toward the packhorse bridge over Scandal Beck, we follow a stone wall rich in limestone fossils. Gateposts indicate the geology here, one being of limestone, the other of sandstone. There's a disused sandstone quarry beside the packhorse bridge and another low on the fellside where we stop for lunch, looking out toward the double lime kilns and the limestone quarry on the northern side of the beck. Today, Scandal Beck flows fast and full and we hear the sound of a tributary beck running off the fell to join it.
Walking low on the fellside, above Scandal Beck, we stop to look at various ancient and unusual trees along our way. There are rowan, birch, hawthorn, hazel and a crab apple. We stop by a rowan with hollow trunk and a hollow branch that still bears fruit. Torn fibres show where branch and trunk meet. It's an image of resilience. I've no idea how old the tree might be but, for a rowan, it's aged.
Men are at work on the restoration of Smardale GIll Viaduct. Crossing the stile we walk the disused railway track. There's Devil's-bit scabious in flower and knapweed. Guelder rose berries are scarlet and on one shrub the leaves assume autumn colour too. No swallows on the wires where I'd hoped to see them, only those that flew low about us up on the heather fell. I wonder if most have already left on migration.
RSS Feed