Pictures from a late September holiday in the Cumbria village of Troutbeck.
Brough Castle (English Heritage), on the way out. Built by the Normans in about 1092, on the site of a Roman fort, it guarded the strategic Stainmore Pass route across the northern Pennines. Restored by the redoubtable Lady Anne Clifford, it was finally abandoned after her death in 1676.
The nearby St. Michael’s parish church contains this replica of the “Brough stone” (now in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge). The inscription was originally thought to be runic it was realised to be a touching memorial poem in Greek:
Should any traveller chance to see sixteen-year-old Hermes of Commagene [northern Syria], foredoomed by fate to the grave, let him speak as follows: “My greetings to you, boy, fast though you passed your mortal life; for you flew to the land of the Cimmerian-speaking folk.” And you won’t be wrong, for he was a good, chaste-living boy.
St. Margaret’s tower, Staveley, is all that remains of an original medieval church. This was replaced by a new parish church in the 19th C.
Troutbeck is an unusually dispersed village, spread out from Town End to Town Head along a road running above the valley of the Trout Beck. It contains some fantastic old buildings, such as this.
Loughrigg Fell
View over Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace (walk starting from White Moss car park, Rydal Water).
Views from the top of Loughrigg Fell (Marilyn and Wainwright).
(L) Rydal Cave excavated into the fell by quarrying, and (R) Rydal Water on the descent.
Tarn Hows and Hawkshead
Tarns Hows, on a walk from Hawkshead on a slightly damp day.
It’s unusual to see cows in the Lake District. These distinctive Belted Galloways, however, looked quite content in this challenging environment.
Hawkshead parish church. The interior is very striking, with its white stonework and painted decorative borders.