Pavement

For the final walk of our trip we headed a short distance east to another impressive limestone outcrop, Hutton Roof Crags.

It's been interesting walking with someone else, as I've got used to doing my more extended walks on my own. After about half an hour of this walk I really didn't have a clue where we were as we'd been loosely following directions in the book that we'd been using, but as a consequence I hadn't been keeping in close contact with the map.  My sense of direction wouldn't have helped at this point, but my brother guided us through that tricky bit.  The top of Hutton Roof Crags does have a reputation as a bit of a maze, but we hadn't even managed to get up to the top yet.

Once we emerged from the woods onto the fell things became a little clearer, and we found our way to the summit, our second Marilyn of the trip, not that that had been our primary motivation.

It would take a good few days of exploration to really get a sense of the terrain  here. We negotiated our way through juniper bushes, stepping across clints and over grykes.  Limestone is notoriously slippy in wet weather, and we were walking in the aftermath of a downpour.

Over on the northwestern side of the fell top plateau we found ourselves in a Hazel woodland, with branches heavy with nuts. It happens that I'm allergic to hazelnuts, a tad inconvenient given I'm vegan, so this stretch added to the sense of danger in the expedition :)

On the top we saw a Green Woodpecker stalking the pavement, and in the woods plenty of moths and fungi. A solitary Red Admiral zoomed by.

Descending the fell to the north west we passed the Cuckoo Stone, before entering the village of Hutton Roof, which, we learned from an old AA sign, is two hundred and fifty two and a quarter miles from London.

We returned to along the southern foot of the fell, past more signs of the lime industry, before finishing with one last beautifully maintained Cumberland County Council finger post.

My brother then dropped me back at Carnforth Station for my trip back across the Pennines, while he headed on home to Wales.  The weather may not have been perfect, but we had three great walks.

And for a blip, what else could a Geographer bring you from limestone country, but a classic piece of limestone pavement. Enjoy.