BB1929 : Fairies Will Grant Your Every Wish

Thursday, 29th August 2019

A beautiful morning.  A lovely drive round the south west of the Lake District.  Wast Water looking magnificent with the still lake reflecting the mountains.  The exciting Mickledore ascent to the top of England.  Lots of people enjoying the sunshine on the top of Scafell Pike.  An exhilarating dash down the tourist route to the car in Wasdale.  The return home in glorious evening sunshine.  What a day.

However… that was Tuesday, with the grandchildren.  Today’s BOOTboys outing was a rather different affair. High winds and cloudy weather caused us to abort the planned ascent of Glaramara and seek a gentler alternative.  The late start led to further delay as we met and supped coffee at the 1818 auction mart whilst we decided what to do.  The decision was to walk from The Wolf House gallery at Silverdale to Beetham.  A linear walk which, because of the necessary car shuffling, meant a further delay before we started in earnest.

A problem with these low level, village related walks is that there is so much to see and explore that progress is inevitably slow.  

The Silverdale Wells fed by drops emerging from the limestone cliff.  

St John's Church with its remarkable modern screen framing the old stained glass window - if you stand inside the bell tower and look through the new window into the body of the church, it looks as if the external window is floating over the pews.  Quite remarkable.

   

Then there was The Pepperpot where the usual debate erupted.  Where exactly was Blackpool Tower?

The pointer on the cairn showed it slightly to the right of the Heysham Power Stations.  However the pointer on the cairn wasn't pointing at the Power Stations.  It was pointing to the left of them.  

On the other hand, the OS map says it is directly behind the westernmmost power station.

Various views were expressed.  Uncle Google has provided the true answer.

Slightly to the right of the Power Stations.

We hadn’t walked very far and it was already past noon which had had the inevitable effect on Tony.  An empty yurt was discovered, locked but with a patio on which we could have our lunch, somewhat protected from the wind.

Arnside Tower (a ruined Pele tower) was the next distraction.....

..... before reaching the trig point on the top of the Knott.

A misunderstanding between Stan and me caused an eccentric route off the Knott that cunningly omitted the viewing point so that was one distraction avoided.  However the promenade provided several.

The old railway track led us to Carr Bank where we headed north for Fairy Steps.  

There were several children around.  One young girl came down the steps.  I asked if she knew that if you could pass through the steps without touching the sides, the fairies would grant your every wish.  She shot off up the steps and I then realised how foolish I had been.  The steps (a cleft in the cliff) are limestone and potentially slippery.  Without using her arms she could easily slip and…… .  I made a wish.  It was granted.  She went up and down without incident.  She said she hadn’t touched the sides.  I believed her.

We all then went up.  Some trying to have their wishes granted.  I succeeded.  I had my hands clasped together all the way up.  I confess that my elbows had brushed the sides but they don’t count.  Do they?

Tony’s wish was to get to the pub as soon as possible.  This would have been granted but he spotted a renovation project that had to be examined.

Then he noticed that the Beetham graveyard had a Commonwealth War Grave so that too had to be examined.

Meanwhile where were John and Robin (plus Holly, his Labrador)?  Had they vanished?  No, of course they hadn’t; they had just made sure that their wishes were granted before ours. Just down the lane in the Wheatsheaf.

Don, Thursday 29th August 2019

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Comitibus:

Comitibus:  Tony, Stan, noD, John, Holly, Robin

STATISTICS

BB1929 : Fairies Will Grant Your Every Wish

Date:

Thursday 29th August

Features:

Silverdale Pepperpot, Arnside Knott, Fairysteps

Comitibus:

Don, John (+Holly), Robin, Stan, Tony

Distance in miles (Garmin):

10.8

Height climbed in feet (OMN):

1,599

GPX track

BB1929.gpx

 

BB1929 Map

Map: OS 1:50k

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