lapwings | sunshine and celandines

At the weekend we drove over the North Pennines ( a scenic 45 minute journey from the van) into the Durham Dales. Our destination, a pretty waterfall walk in Upper Teasdale.

Low Force is a series of low cascades about three miles upstream from Middleton-In-Teesdale. Although not as dramatic as nearby High Force, the falls are still worth visiting.

We parked nearby at Bowlees Visitor Centre , it has a good sized carpark with a donations payment box. From there we crossed a wooden bridge and headed to the centre, which is in a lovely converted chapel. Next it was a matter of walking straight ahead down a lane and through some fields into woodland.

Once in the woodland we decided to cross Wynch Bridge, a chain suspension bridge over the River Tees. Erected in the 1800s, this Wynch Bridge was built to replace the original, which had collapsed under the weight of nine miners heading to Middleton Mine. The present bridge still comes with a ‘ Please Cross One Person At A Time !’ sign.

Near the other side of the bridge there are two life-size Sheep sculptures stood on a dry stone wall plinth. The Sheep by local artist Keith Alexander look like they are off to view Low Force too. 😊

The writing on the plinth reads ‘ A Wonderful Place To Be A Walker.’

And here is Low Force! There are various natural viewing points from which to photograph the falls. Plunging over the Whin Sill ( layers of millions of years old molten rock) the water cascades into scenic rocky river pools.

Low Force tumbles a small and mighty 18ft drop.

We decided to walk along the riverside a while, which is part of The Pennine Way. You can easily carry on from Low Force to England’s biggest waterfall High Force, a couple of miles upstream. Now that Hugo can’t walk as far, we will save that for another occasion. There are certainly plentiful routes and trails in the Durham Dales to explore. 😊

Nature inspired art in a dry stone wall.

I would definitely love to return, not least because there was so much wildlife to see, including curlews, lapwings and my first swallows of the year. The area has also been used as a filming location in the war movie 1917 and the supernatural series The Witcher.

After retracing our steps back over Wynch Bridge and taking a few more photos of the waterfalls, we headed back to Bowlees Visitor Centre for an early lunch. The Visitor Centre is run by the North Pennines National Landscape team, and is a gateway to the North Pennines National Landscape and UNESCO Global Geopark. So any information you may wish to know about North Teesdales unique geology and wildlife can be found here.

There’s a lovely gift shop and cafe downstairs too and an art gallery upstairs. Dogs are allowed on the ground floor. A toasty wood burning stove warmed us up, for despite the welcoming sunshine it was still chilly outdoors.

Lapwings in the rafters. The words read ~ ‘A Flock of Lapwings, Tumbling above the meadows, Flood the sky with sound.’

My lunch was delicious 😋. Tasty tomato soup with a savoury cheese scone. So good.

Have you ever visited Low Force and The River Tees? I thought it was lovely there and can’t wait to return. 😊

I was looking for a short ( hopefully cow free ) local hike and I came across this 2.3 Mile Wildflower Meadow Walk , starting from the pretty Lancashire village of Slaidburn. Not sure the mileage mentioned is quite correct ,we ended up doing twice that amount! The directions took us on a wild goose chase a couple of times. Or maybe we just get lost easily. 😃

We arrived in Slaidburn about 9-30am on Sunday morning, unaware that we had visited on the day of a Vintage Steam Fair . The village car park was still quiet at that time though , so we found a space and set off to the cenotaph, the start of our route.

Slaidburns War Memorial erected in 1923 on the site of the former market cross ……and whipping post.

Sign at the entrance of the Silver Jubilee Garden.

We turned right at the War Memorial and headed over the bridge and then through a kissing gate into a field on the right. Keeping the brook on our right , we headed across the field in completely the wrong direction. So best to ignore my instructions and follow the route link yourself, if you don’t want to get lost. 🙃

We saw several hares in the grass and it was also a privilege to hear and see lots of flying curlews and lapwings.

A stone track took us over another bridge and on the right we saw a farm gate with a purple Coronation Meadow Sign on it. Coronation Meadows is a Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project started by HRH The Prince Of Wales. Since the Queen’s Coronation ,Great Britain has lost a huge percentage of its naturally farmed meadows. This initiative started in 2013, aims to protect remaining wildflower meadows, create new ones and get people interested in them. There are now ninety Coronation Meadows in the country with Bell Sykes Farm representing the Ribble Valley.

Bell Sykes Farming methods have changed little over the years, hence their inclusion in the Coronation Meadows project. Seeds from the ancient pastures have been used to create new meadows, some are on the farm and others are elsewhere in Lancashire.

The meadows were looking resplendent, in them were thousands of buttercups and clover, ribwort plantain, self-heal and yellow rattle. I also spied one orchid, maybe there are more. The diversity of wildflowers encourages bees and butterflies. It was however very breezy on Sunday , so we didn’t actually see many.

A path goes through the farmyard and up.

Old Grindstone used for sharpening scythes.

Toward the end of the walk we passed through a couple more of Bell Sykes beautiful Coronation Meadows.

Pendle Witch Trail Tercet Waymarker in Slaidburn Car Park. The verse on this one mentions a Devil Dog.

Once back in Slaidburn we had a coffee and piece of cake ( of course! ) sat outside the cafe that looks over the Village Green. By this time the Vintage Steam Fair was in full swing, rousing tunes piping from beautiful fairground organs. 😊 I shall leave you with a few photos.