LIMESTONE COUNTRY - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 53

wall. Here, swing left to parallel the wall to a gate. Beyond the gate the
path descends gently as it threads a limestone ledge to a stile just above
the quarry access road. Steps lead down to the road and up the other side
to a broad limestone plateau, soon joining a broad, stony track, though
not one frequented by the huge lorries that travel the quarry access. Take
care crossing the access, both to avoid the huge lorries that use it, and
to minimise the quantity of cloying limestone mud that will stick to your
boots.
Across the access, bear left along the track, towards the hidden hamlet
of Oddendale, but as it is approached, bear right, and shortly leave the
road leading into Oddendale for a broad, gently rising track on the right -
a Roman road - striking across the moorland expanse of Crosby Ravens-
worth Fell.
ODDENDALE
Oddendale is very much a shy and secluded place, a world apart from external haste
and harassment. It lies at the heart of a vast area renowned for its wealth of prehistoric
communities, no less than 11 early British settlements being found within a short com-
pass. Oddendale Stone Circle, a double ring of stones, lies only a short distance from
the Roman road, and is worth a short diversion. There is a grassy path to it, but it is
not distinct.
The track continues climbing easily as far as Potrigg, in reality no more
than a barn on the edge of a walled enclosure, and surrounded by trees.
Keep forward past a track junction, and go as far as a waymark post on
the left, where the track forks again. Here, branch left, descending on a
green path to the corner of the conifer plantation.
Ahead, now, a cairn can be seen on the edge of a limestone rise, and
beyond it a signpost and another cairn marks the site of an ancient tu-
mulus. Before reaching the tumulus, the walk crosses the line of a Roman
road linking forts at Low Borrow Bridge, in Lonsdale, and Brougham.
Much of this area is popular with breeding birds, and the way across it
is to be waymarked - a good thing, too, for there is a grand feeling of
openness here. Freed from the constraining summits and vales of Lake-
land granite, the wind clears the mind (and sinuses), the sounds of moor-
land replace the subtly different music of the high fells, and the scenery
rolls on forever to distant Cross Fell, the highest summit of the Pennines,
and its acolytes, Little and Great Dun Fell, bringing an invigorating sense
of freedom and self-satisfaction. Nearer to hand lies the serene loveliness