ACROSS LAKELAND - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 25

Moses' Trod, or more correctly, Moses' Sledgate, is an old slate road across which Hon-
ister slate was transported to Wasdale and out to Ravenglass on the coast. Fragments
of green Honister slate may still be found along its length.
Rather more romantically, it is said to have been named after an illicit whisky distiller
who had his still concealed among the surrounding crags. Whether there ever was a still
remains uncertain, for there is a theory that Moses was a quarryman at Honister who
smuggled plumbago (graphite) as a sideline, perhaps distilling whisky after his day's
work. During the 18th century, Borrowdale plumbago was very much at a premium,
and smuggling likely to have been a profitable business. Either way the trod serves a
useful and convenient purpose for Coast-to-Coasters bound for Honister, and the name
of Moses, for his sins or otherwise, lives on, remembered by every walker who places
foot on Moses' Trod.
Before long the route collides with the trod at a large cairn, and continues
an easy descent northwards (left) to the remains of the tramway and
Drum House that served the Dubs Quarry. Here turn right, descending
even more steeply for a while to reach the defunct slate quarry buildings
at the top of one of Lakeland's better known motor passes, Honister.
HONISTER QUARRY
Honister Slate Mine is still being worked, producing high-quality Honister slate. If you
have time, you could join one of the guided visits.
Working conditions at the quarry used to be extremely harsh and dangerous. Slate
was brought down to the knapping sheds on hurdles, or trail-barrows, which had two
inclining handles ('stangs') at the front between which the man would position him-
self, going, like a horse, before the weight. These contraptions weighed as much as
80lb empty, and it took the men half an hour of laborious effort to carry them back to
the quarries in the honeycomb of tunnels above. The subsequent laden descent, un-
believably, was only a matter of minutes, depending on skill, dexterity and good for-
tune. Remarkable tales are found of men who worked in the quarries in the 19th cen-
tury: Samuel Trimmer once made 15 journeys in a day for a bottle of rum and a small
percentage of the slate he sledged, and Joseph Clarke of Stonethwaite, who made 17
journeys, bringing down each time 640lb of slate, a total of 10,880lb in one day. 'His
greatest day's work,' writes Harriet Martineau, 'was bringing 11,771 pounds; in how
many journeys it is not remembered: but in fewer than seventeen.' This highly dan-
gerous method of obtaining slate was ended in 1881, when a gravitational railway was
introduced. Quarry workers, like drystone wallers, often lived during the week in small
huts on the hillsides, going home only from Saturday night until Monday morning, and
while away, communicating with their wives by carrier pigeons.
Now from Honister thoughts turn to Borrowdale, that most loved and popular of Lake-
land's valleys.