Showing You the Way ..... Muker to Thwaite Circular

Showing You the Way ...... 

is a series of 3 illustrated walk leaflets for children.  

Pick up a leaflet in the Keld Countryside & Heritage Centre.

Today we explored the Cowus (cow house) trail, a circular walk from Muker to Thwaite and back.

  

This walk is 2.8 miles with a 600ft ascent. 

The first section is quite an uphill pull but once you get to Kisdon Houses it is level or downhill all the way .........

........ with magnificent views in all directions.

Looking east above and looking west below

 Once out onto the heather moor the path becomes rocky & uneven.  Although part of the Pennine Way, it is no more than a sheep trod and care is required.

Challenging and fun, this walk will bring out the adventurer in you! 

Back in the valley bottom follow the meadow paths, through narrow squeeze stiles to Muker.

But not before a well deserved picnic by the stream.

Further Adventures of Heidi and Hetty

Heidi and Hetty are doing a grand job of bringing up their lambs.

All three of them are fine examples of Herdwick sheep.

Look how Jacqui and Doris have grown!  Hetty is as cautious and camera shy as ever, she keeps her lambs close.

Heidi, on the other hand, is much more outgoing and will come quite near especially if she thinks I have some treats for her.

Marco is getting quite brave too!

He's becoming very handsome in a comical sort of way.  Don't you agree?

Summer on the farm

Summer on the farm is all about making fodder and clipping sheep.

We have made over 2000 small bales of hay and hundreds of round bale silage.

 

 We have been lucky.  We cut at the right time, the weather was on our side and the end result is a winter's worth of first class hay and silage for our sheep and cattle.  A lovely feeling.

So now all the hay and silage is made Chris, his brother and his nephew can concentrate on the sheep.

The weather is warming up so its time to clip.  The first to be sheared are the hoggs (the young sheep, born last year, who haven't been sheared before), then the ewes with singles and finally those running with twins.

 Heidi the Herdwick has a thick, dense fleece.  She will look very different without her coat which will be coming off soon.

Earlier this year there was a big fuss on social media that clipping sheep was cruel.  Ridiculous claims made by people who don't understand stock and farming.  The sheep are not ill treated during the process, they are held securely but carefully so that the fleece comes off quickly and in one piece. It is in the interest of the sheep's welfare to shear, maintaining healthy skin and a clean fleece for the coming winter. Not to clip would be like making us wear our heaviest winter coats all summer long and never changing our underwear!

  Almost all finished.  Note the lambs are not clipped.  They are too young and their wool is still fine.

Our Green Footprint

What is Upper Swaledale Holidays doing to reduce their carbon footprint, 

to reduce single use plastic and create less waste?

 

Upper Swaledale is without doubt a #green and pleasant land 

but what are we doing to keep it that way?

 Going #green

In the guest bathrooms at both Pry House Farm B&B and Hillcrest Cottage we have replaced single use plastic bottles of hand wash with refillable Cole & Lewis products. 

"Tourists are responsible for large quantities of single-use plastic that pollute beaches and threaten wildlife" says Molly Blackall in a recent on-line Guardian article.

At Pry House Farm B&B we decant marmalade & jam into attractive pots for the breakfast table and butter is served in a butter dish.  This eliminates hundreds of individual plastic jam servings and foil butter wrappers going into landfill.  

 

You will find wool pillows and duvets on most beds at the B&B, in the Shepherd's Hut and at Hillcrest Cottage. Nobody wants to sleep on a stained pillow - yuk!  Wool pillows are zipped so that the wool filling can be removed and the cover washed stopping pillows going into landfill.  Our wool duvets also wash beautifully.  Yes, its an expensive initial outlay but the environmental benefits outweigh the cost and in the long run it SAVES money. 

 We now support Home Farm Milk http://www.thehomefarmer.co.uk/p/homepage.html

where milk comes in a glass bottle - attractive, reusable and environmentally friendly.

On top of this we recycle all plastic, glass, tin, paper & card in the normal way.

Upper Swaledale Holidays is a very small fish in a very large pond but we try to do our bit. Small steps #greenfootprint #goinggreen #green       

Twins, Herdies and Pet Lambs

We may have finished lambing weeks ago but there's still daily checking and looking after required.

Ewes with twins in our low fields get sugar beet every day and are counted to make sure none are missing or ailing.

My herdy lambs are in the low fields and like the Swaledale lambs are beginning to eat cake too.

 However unlike the Swaledale lambs who hardly alter in appearance, the herdwick lambs change very quickly and develop a white mask-like face and grey legs.  Marco is changing faster than the gimmer twins who are still quite black except for their white tipped ears!

Pet lambs are part and parcel of lambing time and are a great source of delight to friends who like to come and bottle feed them.

Not all sheep are able to rear their lambs particularly if they have twins. Occasionally we have to take one away and it becomes a 'pet lamb'. Similarly not all lambs survive either.  When this happens we quickly 'mother on' a pet lambs so that the ewe has a lamb to raise.  This year however we have been left with three pet lambs that didn't get a mother.  I have called them the Three Musketeers!

Today, as the sun shone warm and bright, we put them in the little field by the house.  They have a lean-to shed where they can shelter and they will get milk and lamb pellets to supplement all that beautiful meadow grass!  I have reared pet lambs before (they were the Three Amigos) and they get up to all sorts of mischief.  Why?  No mum to keep them in order.  Watch this space!

Ruins, remains and all things abandoned

Coming to walk in Swaledale?  Coming for the scenery, the wildlife and the meadows?

Its all here in abundance and you won't be disappointed however what's been left here from a time when life in the dale was very different to how it is today? When life was hard, when it was a struggle.  When work was dangerous and dark and difficult with little reward.

The legacy of the lead mining industry at Swinner Gill.

There are many lead mining buildings to explore in Swaledale.  The Swinner Gill ruins are up a steep climb on the C2C path out of Keld.  Fascinating and thought provoking when you realise the men (and boys?) had this arduous trek every day.    

Old Gang and Surrender can be found on the road between Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. Take the road up the side of the Punchbowl Inn in Low Row. 

Crackpot Hall is probably the most well known abandoned ruin in Upper Swaledale.  On the walk between Keld and Muker take the track up and away from the skeleton tractor which has been left abandoned to be slowly reclaimed by the earth.

The name Crackpot Hall sounds very grand but it is in fact no more than a very large farmhouse. It is however a feast for the imagination triggering a mind-boggling overload of questions ...Who lived here?  Why did they leave? What was life like in such a remote location with no electricity, running water or access road?  Its a place that children adore.  Bring the family.  There is plenty published about Crackpot Hall and even recorded for radio on BBC3 Alice at Crackpot 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nr54x

On the opposite side of the river Swale is the abandoned hamlet of Harklakes once occupied by lead miners, small holders and farmers.

On the outside there's evidence of a single story porch now long gone. Peep inside and see the cramped living conditions, the fireplace (what did they burn, peat or coal?), a stone staircase, rough sorn beams, stone shelves and lime washed walls.

Stumbling across these abandoned dwellings is a source of great wonderment.  If they fire your curiosity visit the Swaledale Museum in Reeth http://www.swaledalemuseum.org/and the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes http://www.dalescountrysidemuseum.org.uk/ both rich with artifacts and information.

Lambing 2019

 After a busy few weeks, lambing is almost finished.  

It has been hard work, long days but as always exciting and rewarding. 

Some of our sheep lamb inside and
but the majority lamb in the fields
surrounding the farmhouse.
This ewe had her triplets outside but Chris
brought them in so that we could keep an eye
on them and make sure they were all getting
an equal share of milk.

 The happiest days were when Heidi and Hetty, my herdwicks, had their lambs. I was lucky enough to see Hetty have the first of her twins, both gimmers.  Heidi had a single tup lamb who I have called Marco - he is a big strong and very confident.

 One of the great joys at lambing time is sharing the experience with our guests, family and friends.

  

And when we have pen full of pet lambs a helping hand with bottle feeding is gratefully received.

 

   

But my herdwick lambs are not the only black lambs on Pry House Farm home field.

Unusually one of our Swaledale ewes had an all black lamb!  It doesn't happen very often - perhaps once every eight or ten years.  

I have called her Amazing Grace.  She has long legs and as her name implies she is very graceful.

Marco when he is only a few hours old and Heidi happily posing for the camera!