Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

We are fortunate in living in the country and being able to walk from the house.  A short drive greatly increase the choice of walks – we've set ourselves a limit of 5 miles from home (dinna tell the Lockdown Polis!).  This walk is well within that, about 3 miles.

Today we parked at the Kerr Wood, alive with the calls of chiffchaff and willow warbler, and with a buzzard soaring overhead, and set off into a strong wind along the old drove road that links Annandale and Eskdale.  At first glance it seems an area of bleak moorland, but in fact it teems with wildlife.  We encountered pairs of stonechat and reed bunting, small tortoiseshell, peacock and orange tip butterflies, as well as innumerable meadow pipits and several early swallows,  while the sky was filled by the song of skylarks.  The only humans we encountered (at  a safe distance) were a coupke of Langholm girls out on a training run.

It was a beautiful day, with a positively Simpsonesque blue sky with fluffy clouds.  Turning in a clockwise direction revealed a panorama of Whita and Tinnis Hills, then the North Pennines  and Geltsdale, before Blencathra and Skiddaw appeared across the Solway Plain.

A day to make lockdown bearable!

Ken

The Kerr & Old Irvine

about 5 Miles

Ken & Anne Halliday

Report and Photos by 

Ken Halliday