LONSDALE - WHERE ARE YOU?
Is it all about the Dales, or is it about the Rivers? My QUEST map, which guides me as I find all the named Dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (YDNP) and paint each one, is based on the rivers.
Of course, each Dale has a River – although many Dales do not take their names from them. Lonsdale is such a Dale, it is the valley of the River Greta.
I set out to find it.
Like all good stories, it’s good to go back to the beginning, so let’s start with River Greta’s tributaries…..
The River Doe gathers its waters to the north of Ingleborough, around the hamlet of Chapel-le-Dale. Flowing west down through Doedale, beneath the grand contours of the Peaks, its journey towards Ingleton is often unnoticed as the fells are such a distraction!
Meanwhile, just a little further north the River Twiss also flows west. It gathers its waters from Kingsdale, gathering speed as it cascades down impressive and mesmerising waterfalls near Ingleton: the famous Ingleton Waterfall Trail.
Right in the middle of the town, the two Rivers join forces and become the River Greta!
And so, the YDNP Rangers tell me, here in Ingleton, is the start of Lonsdale.
But there’s a bit of a problem. If we follow the route of the newly formed River Greta, still flowing west, within ½ mile it passes under the A65. Which is the western boundary of the YDNP. So only ½ a mile of Lonsdale is actually within the Park!
Perhaps it is the smallest piece of any Dale to be within the YDNP boundary?
What shall I do with this small, town-embedded, steep sided, difficult to view bit of Dale?
I looked at my walking maps to find out more. Footpaths and tracks head up the slopes behind Ingleton and from the hamlet of Thornton-in-Lonsdale nearby. I set out exploring; the hamlet’s name was encouraging: was this the ‘real’ Lonsdale? And a part actually within the YDNP? There were lush pastures, lovely small dry valleys, easy paths and tracks, all watched over by impressive limestone escarpments. What geological history they must tell.
But I wasn’t sure I really was in Lonsdale.
My photos show what a dull afternoon it was. As we walked, and I looked for inspiration, we were constantly aware of the drama going on behind us. Glances back offered a huge panoramic view of fields and hills and distant fells – and, as the afternoon light began to fade, an increasingly dramatic sky.
Surely this was the real essence of Lonsdale? This huge sweep out towards the town of Burton-in-Lonsdale, and beyond. Beyond the YDNP, into Lancashire where the River Greta meets the River Lune; and the worlds of Lonsdale and Lune Valley get blurred….. even experts on this area seem to disagree which is which. I’ve had some interesting and bewildering conversations!
As I turned to walk back to the car, the sky was mesmerising. The darks got more exciting and the light more perfect. The vista seemed full of possibilities, of different lands, the turning of the day, of looking somewhere other…..somewhere OVER THERE. Where the River Greta flows.
‘OVER THERE’ (Lonsdale) a painting in soft pastel.
And so my painting had a title.
Sometimes it’s good to look beyond, and to blur boundaries!
