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Lime kilns, castles and scarecrows

Bank holidays spent at home and out of the rain seem to be a thing of the past as we manage to get into the big world once more.

Lime kilns and castles were on the agenda yesterday as we went in search for content for one of our other websites called heritageandhistory.com.

Our first stop for a sniff and stretch was a small village called Orton.

This village is situated a few miles NE of Tebay just off the M6 and is known in the area for the farmers market every second Saturday of every month and Kennedys chocolates.

Our approach to All Saints Church was greeted with flags as the annual scarecrow festival was taking place.

Whilst we shelteredf rom a slight rain shower in a pop up tent erected in the church yard, Mum went into the church to be greeted by many happy friendly folk. She emerged with a scarecrow trail map and small booklet about the church.

Scarecrow number one was easy, a big christmas pudding at the entrance to the church.

Now to find the other 30 scattered around the many streets and gardens. You can see some of the ones we spotted in the gallery below this article.

Half way around and Charlie spots water. Like a magnet to a can he is attracted to this stream and he goes for a paddle.

Dad notices that this bridge is very unusual as it has two gaps for the water to flow through. Further investigation reveals that on the other side of the bridge the water is diverted in two different directions.

One stream continues straight on the new stream heads off left alongside the road.

We are not sure why this diversion takes place so maybe someone can advise using the comments area below.

After spending a good few hours in Orton we return to the car and head off into the hills in search of lime kilns.

Dad now got lost.

The map came out and the usual comments of why don’t they put roadsigns on some of these junctions was heard. Things were not helped when we saw this sign warning of rhino.

We have noticed recently that although the M6 seems to be getting millions of pounds spent on new electronic signs the backroads, where it could be argued are in more need of signage, seems to be loosing out.

So we say please bring back the fingerpost roadsigns on our rural roads to stop Dad gettng lost.

Single track roads and quite a bit of reversing later we emerged onto a road know as the Tommy Road between the A683 and the B6259. Observing what looked like a lime kiln to our left dad parked the car and we got out.

We were glad of the walk as all the stream water we had swallowed in Orton was now in need escape and the last 10 minutes in the bumpy car had not helped. Oh such relief.

After a walk over the mossy tuffets to the top of a nearby hill to take a look at the view we returned to the now deralict kiln constructed into the hillside.

We kept well away from the kiln itself to ensure we didn’t get hit on the head by a falling rock however we did have a good sniff around.

Used now by the sheep as a place of shelter these structures were once used to produce quicklime by heating up limestone rocks.

Quicklime was used as an additive to building mortar and as a render on walls.

The tower of All Saints Church in Orton visited earlier would have had a lime render giving the white appearance which can be seen from miles around.

Looking back towards the car we became aware of this very confident sheep who tried to block our way.

Mum thought he must be guarding something, so we gave him a very wide berth and kept our distance.

He was very scary with his big horns and stance on top of a small hill, even dad looked worried.

Dropping further down the hill and over the Settle to Carlisle rail line we arrived at the ruin of Pendragon Castle.

According to legend, Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur, is said to have built the first castle here and unsuccessfully tried to divert the river to provide its moat

Mum and dad are of a certain age that whenever King Arthur is mentioned they quote Monty Python and this was no exception. We climbed the hill to Spam, spam, spam… and a certain parrot sketch.

Walking around the base of the castle many holes, possibly former windows, just needed to be looked into.

The many sheep and lambs had left a number of trails through the ruin as they searched for shelter from the weather on this exposed spot overlooking the river Eden.

Measuring about 20m square the Pendragon Castle we see today is said to date from the latter part of the 12th Century and is built on a hill.

This offers a commanding view of the nearby countryside and with its walls over 2m thick in places, a strong defensive position.

Charlie investigates the many sniffs inside the ruin whils mum and dad try to work out what the building would have looked like all those years ago.

Many small plants have started to live in between the stones of this now giant rock garden giving the walls a pink and green look. More contents for mum for Naturearoundme.com during the next few months

Our investigations were being watched by a friendly lamb who seemed very interested in what we were doing in his back yard.

We left the site just as a minibus full of visitors arrived clutching cameras, tripods and rucksacks full of stuff.

Our final visit of the day was as the small village of Outhgill in search of the Jews Stone.

Not sure what we were looking for we parked the car in a road to our left just before the church and dad went for a look around.

Amazingly we were in the right place and ahead of us, surrounded by a wooden fence, was a single stone column with green lichen growing on it.

At the base was a large interpretation board explaining all about the monument and the history. Dad will write this all up later over on Heritageandhistory.com.

It seems that the stone is a replica of the “Jews Stone”, which was set up in 1850 by the eccentric William Henry Mounsey ( 1808 -1877).

It is over 2m high and about 10cm square and is made of a limestone known as Dent Marble.

With our challenges for the day accomplished we headed homeward relieved that we had not been caught by any bad weather .

As we past Appleby the signs had been posted warning of slow moving traffic.

Appleby Horse Fair starts in a few days time and with it comes a large number of horse drawn vehicles.

We return home safe and well after a very busy day. Dad downloads the pictures from the camera and mum gets the dinner ready.

Stew is on the menu with little trees . Mum has spent today, Sunday, planting loads of seeds to grow next years supply of turnip and little trees in the allotment.

We just love them fresh from the fridge. Trees are given as a general reward whilst a nice piece of cold turnip is favourite after a meal to clean our teeth.

Thats all for now

Until next time

Buster and Charlie

Gallery

You may also be interested in:

• A Path to Newbiggin
• Kirkby Stephen – to Hartley.. our adventures continue
• Lambs, stiles and unique river art in Cumbria
• Caldbeck, John Peel and a bobbin mill called The Howk
• Putting the lights up in Appleby