Banna Fell

From Cauda Brow.

A new electricity cable is being laid.

On some maps this is shown as a public road. But it is signed 'Unsuitable for motor vehicles', and I would certainly not have risked my own car along here! Bridleway, for horses and walkers, fine - but I suspect that otherwise you would need a 4x4 to get along here. (This track emerges one square to the west, at NY088166.)

Heading for Ennerdale Bridge.

View from slopes of Kelton Fell above Crossdale: to left is Great Borne (2,019 ft.); in distance, Pillar (2,927 ft.) and Steeple (2,687 ft.).

Old & deep mine shaft in the woods at Knockmurton. No.1 Pit would have had headgear and dressing floors as well as a mine office and a direct link to the mineral railway that took the ore down to the processing plants at Workington. The ore deposits were mostly in flats, and varied in thickness from a few feet to 40 fathoms although it often contained irregular but near vertical joints within the Haematite.

The view along the northern side of the northern bay of Ennerdale Water with Herdus, the western shoulder of Great Borne, being the prominent mountain.

A public footpath to the north shore of Ennerdale Water.

Who can deny the beauty of the English Lakes? Who can explain the dearth of bird life?

Today there are many graphic images of farm animals having been mauled by out of controlled dogs. This is not just a modern phenomenon. On 12th September 1810, a dog was shot near Rowrah at the bottom end of Ennerdale. It had been on the rampage all that summer eluding many hunts and attempts to kill it. The dog ranged from Ennerdale and Wasdale to Cockermouth to Seascale on the coast. The whole of the western Lake District was terrified. Crops went un-harvested, folks were too scared to send their children to school and cows were not milked. Frequently several sheep were killed in one night and it was sighted taking down a fully grown ram. It was said to be a smooth-haired dog, “tawny mouse” coloured with darker streaks rather “like a tiger”. Of no doubt, it was huge, as cunning as a fox and with acute sight and hearing. It was never heard barking or howling. A brewery owner offered a reward of £10 and free ale to whoever killed it. After the dog was shot on that autumn day in Rowrah it was carried in triumph to the inn at Ennerdale Bridge where celebrations began which lasted all night. The carcass was weighed at an enormous 8 stones and was eventually sent to Keswick museum to be stuffed and put on display. It was exhibited there as the Girt Dog of Ennerdale. It has been speculated that the dog was actually a Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine, probably an escapee from a travelling circus which were known to keep such creatures in their menageries. Tasmanian Tigers are now extinct, the last being shot on the island in the 1930s. By the 1950s the Girt Dog of Ennerdale was apparently showing its age for after a few complaints it was removed from the exhibition. No one knows what happened to it after that; which is a pity because modern DNA analysis could have solved the mystery once and for all. From my blog Link