Eycott Hill

What a lovely, unexpected sunny day we got for a guided walk on Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Eycott Hill Nature Reserve.

We've been to the reserve before but we thought it would be nice to have the special features of the reserve shown to us. We learnt a lot about the geology and how the wrinkles in the land were caused by lava flows.

When we got to the highest point, just to the right of this shot, we could see the entire reserve, in fact a breathtaking panorama with Blencathra the star of the show.

From the high point we could see old drainage ditches and were told that these were to be altered to allow water to build up and the canalised parts of Naddle beck would be encouraged to reform its curved path. Other hollows were going to be allowed to fill with water to form small ponds. In one part of the reserve saplings had been planted as the start of an oak woodland which would once have been on the land.

Luing cattle and sheep are being used to assist the growth of wild flower meadows by allowing grazing at correct times of year to keep down grasses and shrubs.

We really enjoyed the morning with the two leaders and about ten other folk. One lady had forgotten her sandwiches so we invited her to join us for lunch at the Cocklakes Farm Shop where we chatted until 2pm.

A very enjoyable day, just a distance I could easily manage, 6,000 steps and the right amount of scrambling up and down volcanic mounds.