Smardale: reading a landscape

Embankment of flowers along Smardale dismantled railway. 25 August 2015

Smardale pack-horse bridge is irresistible. The moment  the child saw the beck he wanted to go down to paddle,  now, right now, the shortest way.  We abandoned  our route  and  searched for a path through the embankment of flowers down to  Severals Gill that trickles into Scandal Beck where the little boy  took off his shoes, dipped his toes in the water, and smiled.  His paddle had given a novel approach, a fresh perspective.  The day was bright and fair and my photo-sequence reveals the bridge as a confluence, a place of convergence. 

---

Smardale pack-horse bridge and Scandal Beck from the dismantled railway

Every time I come here I relish the flavour of the particular day and glimpses of earlier excursions come back to me.  (Delving my photographic archive is like returning to a well-loved story, each read is discovery. And I like to read a landscape through map and photographs). Smardale Bridge is a place where layers of history flow into each other.  Our adapted route  gave us  the morning’s confluence of travellers  and brought us closer to the past.

25 August 2015 . Barbed-wire fencing protects the beck- it's sensitive habitat. Sandstone quarry beyond the bridge and left of the beck. Severals Gill centre right.

As we  approached  the pack-horse bridge a troop of  horses rode out of the clouds.  Riders from  Fell End Clouds,  Stennerskeugh .  There is magic in names:  simple and airy  Fell End Clouds where you might  step out into cloud, and  Stennerskeugh like a clatter of rocks.  Up on Wild Boar Fell  last month we walked above the Clouds: Fell End Clouds, Clouds, Stennerskeugh Clouds: clouds of limestone pavement.
Reaching the bridge, the riders  dismounted and tethered their Welsh cobs and Gipsy cobs to graze as close to the beck as a stout barbed wire fence allowed.  Walkers sat on the parapet, eating lunch. The little boy paddled in Severals Gill  and I chatted to  the riders about their  cobs and their destination .   Leisure August 2015, nothing but leisure and diverse takes on a good day out  in the countryside.  Anyone for the Coast to Coast route via Smardale Fell?  What is this place: now and in the past? .  
Smardale Gill is a National Nature Reserve and Scandal Beck is an SSSI in the River Eden catchment. Left of the bridge is a gap in the wall, and beyond is the disused sandstone quarry where stone for the Smardale Gill Viaduct was quarried.  Before the railway was built pack-horses must have converged here to graze, to drink, to rest.  Whilst the men found refreshment in the pub, now lost in remnants of walls about the bridge.   Look at the map and you can infer the bustle and activity formerly in this landscape:  Dismantled Railway now a track through the Nature Reserve,  Quarries (dis) the bridge is a confluence of quarries (dis), tips ( dis) . Imagine the noise when they were all active, when the railway was being built.  Pillow Mounds and Settlements are mapped in script that tells of antiquity.  

Parapet picnic and riders from Fell End Clouds

Welsh cob and Gipsy cob beside Scandal Beck. The new fence up the Ghyll –side shows our descent track from the dismantled railway.

View from the bridge. Welsh cob and Gipsy cob tethered to fence posts beside Scandal Beck.

The new fence hints at the money and resources poured into management of this beautiful landscape.  I’m  interested in conservation objectives. The fence that runs beside the beck invites us all to look, from a distance, and  to respect all that this beck is.  It  ensures the beck is not churned up   by  bikers,  by horses and dogs in the water.  I know this beck is special and I’d like to come here with  an ecologist to learn more of  the Eden catchment and how it’s managed.. 
 You have to return again and again, in all weathers,  through the seasons and  over the years to appreciate Smardale and the surrounding landscape.  

Note: for more blogs on Smardale try the search facility