Dacre Walls Walk

This week's hike took us through Dacre Parish where we saw features relating to the dry stone walls of the area. The stone walls were built to mark off fields for sheep farmers. They are called "dry" stone walls because no mortar is used to hold the stones together. Building the walls is a true art. None of the stones are cut down to size or shape; they are taken as is and simply fitted in nice and tight and neat. Some of the walls we passed dated to pre-17th Century. We encountered the usual muddy and marshy areas on this walk. At one point we climbed a fairly steep hill (for me) that really wore me out. We climbed over the walls on all manner of stone stiles. Sometimes we climbed on stone steps that seemed to be designed for people with incredibly long legs. I had to really struggle to climb them. At other times we gained passage through a "squeeze stile" -- a vertical gap in the wall. These stiles seemed designed for people with sticks as legs. We crossed over a quaint packhorse bridge that was used in earlier times by donkeys bearing loads of wool to market. We also saw a "cripple hole", a feature dating to medieval times. A cripple hole is simply a gap situated low in a stone wall with a flagstone cover. The cover is removed to allow sheep to pass through. And speaking of sheep, we saw lots of them and many oh-so-cute lambs. At one point one of the ramblers in our group had to herd some lambs back into a field after they had come tumbling over a low spot on a stone wall. If you'd like to read more about this walk follow this link. Click on the stone wall icon. (You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the page).