Up The Pipeline
05 : Beehive Bridge to Spital

23rd June 2014

Once again we were naughty and ignored the book.  After all, unlike the official "Way", the Pipeline does not follow the canal.  It pursues its own way to the east of Kendal and so did we.

We started from Beehive Bridge, rather closer to the pipeline than we finished on TW04, as evidenced by the clearly visible Syphon Well building.

Part of the track to Hayclose looks as if it is along disturbed ground but there was no other suggestion of the pipeline for some time.

Working our way north wiith fine views on our left, we reached Windy Hill Farm which gets the prize for the filthiest conditions in which we have seen cows kept for many a long year.  And this is summer.  Why aren't they out on the fields?  Why haven't the yards been cleaned?

Continuing north along Paddy Lane, past what once was the Greyhound Inn, we discovered that Kendal has now been twinned with Killarney.  When did that happen?

Much has been made with the twinning with Rinteln but the official Kendal website says very little about Killarney.  Yet it seems important enough to have spent our money on new signs announcing the fact unattractively underneath the old town boundary signs. Personally, if they must spend our money, I would rather it was spent on repairing the roads, which are in a terrible state.

We eventually reached the tanks holding Kendal's water supply fed of course by the Thirlmere Pipeline.

Inspection chambers for Kendal's water

Immediately after, we turned down Fowl Ing Lane, little more than a cart track really.  We could have taken this all the way down to Kendal but I wanted to show the others the original Kendal reservoir.  This is reached by turning left onto a footpath but not the one I chose!  I blame the OS map for not corresponding with the paths on the ground.  No great harm done but it meant we had to climb up the steep rise from Birds Park Cottage to the dam.  No longer in use, it is still a pleasant and interesting area to explore although its outlet channels are starting to get somewhat overgrown compared with my previous visit BB1301.

The old overflow

To reach Kendal, you have to cross under the railway, through a short tunnel in which being a midget would be a great asset!

Fowl Ing Lane winds its way into Kendal.

Having reached Appleby Road, we turned east into Spital Park, a ring of houses where each seems to own a segment of the central green circle.  

My aim was the Spital Quarry which I had previously visited a year ago on BB321 but had then found the ground too slippery to explore. There having been no rain for ages, I hoped for better luck this time. What I hadn't bargained for were the nettles which made progress painful for those with bare bits of leg, even though Ian was waving a tree branch like a machete to clear the path.  Consequently, the quarry will have to await yet another visit at some future date outside the muddening and the nettling seasons.

The original intention was to finish close to where the pipeline crosses the River Mint but, as Ian had parked at Spital, we decided that could wait for the next stage whereas tea was a much more urgent matter.

Don, 24th June 2014

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