Mention Cumbria and many people think of the beautiful English Lake District, the land immortalised in poem by Wordsworth. However, Cumbria is a large county and those who travel to the east find a stunning and largely deserted countryside. The Alston Moor area of Cumbria even has a poet of its own to wax lyrically in WH Auden. Amongst many poems inspired by the region, he wrote:

Tramlines and slagheaps, pieces of machinery,
That was, and still is, my ideal scenery.

(Letter to Lord Byron 1937)

Alhough Auden never lived here, and from the 1940's lived in America, it is said he always carried a map of the area for inspiration.


Where to stay

Our accommodation for the weekend was at the charming Rock House Estate. The estate currently comprises of a large farmhouse sleeping 14, and 3 other houses just down the lane. The self-catering accommodation is rated at four stars, and having seen all the cottages, it’s a fair assessment.

My visit was a surprise for my recent 40th birthday, where my beloved had arranged for 30 of our friends to join us for the weekend. The estate proved perfect for our needs, but smaller groups would enjoy the place too.

The friendly, helpful but unobtrusive Paul and Carol own and live on the estate. Paul was willing to share his knowledge of the local history, which gave me some good information about the area. Our house in the estate was Writers Cottage, a very comfortable billet for two. The cottage is named in honour of Jancis Andrews who used to live in the cottage as a girl before emigrating to the US. I must confess I have never heard of her. However, it was interesting to connect with someone who used to live in this small cottage with her family. Of course, during the 1930’s life was hard, not least in coping with the outside loo!

Downstairs now is a bedroom (nicely done in country cottage style) with a pine 4 poster bed, and a lovely large stone flagged bathroom with its own whirlpool bath. I was pleased to see the facilities were indoors these days. Upstairs, the very comfortable kitchen diner and sitting room is in open plan style. The view from the window across the valley is to die for. While my fellow guests prepared the Saturday evening party, I just sat and watched the changing colours of the moors across the valley as the strength of the sunlight altered.

The rubbish collection system for the cottages is something else for Brits, who have a terrible record of recycling. It seemed like there were bins for every occasion, and the system proved rather tricky after a couple of beers! Of course, we should make more effort to recycle, so I cannot criticise.

There is a small seating area right outside the cottage, but we preferred to sit on the grass alongside the abutting cottage and watch the Curlews and Rabbits in the adjoining field. The main farmhouse has a small but beautiful walled cottage garden. The only downside to sitting outside is with midges, those ferocious but non-infectious cousins of the mosquito. Fortunately, the area is often breezy and Paul told me the midges aren’t usually a problem. We obviously chose a bad weekend with only its slight breese and cloud cover! The midges covered my hairline with little bites within minutes, although that view was still worth the pain.

The estate covers 100 acres of land, and a local man rents and farms it. There is an excellent adventure playground opposite the farmhouse (and yes, a very drunk me partook of the slides and swings at 3:00 AM), and a trail up through the woods.

For the purposes of this review, I managed to wheedle the price out of my beloved. Our cottage was £210 ($380) for the three-night weekend, although it rises to £300 ($540) in peak season. Given that Paul and Carol have a good attention to detail, the houses are well furnished and includes “niceties” (welcome chocolate biscuits, yey!) the place is certainly good value. Larger parties sharing the bigger houses will find the costs cheaper per person.

You can hire the cottage for the weekend, for the 4 nights mid week, or by the whole week. The web site contains a host of information about the place and an easy availability and pricing check. The link follows at the end of this review.

Other visitor accommodation is dotted about. The main town on the moor, Alston has a number of pubs, hotels and bed and breakfasts and you can find a number of camping barns in the area.


What’s on in Alston Moor?

Nenthead

We were pleased to find that although we had the beauty and peace of a rural location, we could cut across the fields and a fifteen-minute stroll to the village of Nenthead and its friendly if a little characterless pub, The Miners Arms. The pub building dates back to the 1700’s but unfortunately, not too much of the original atmosphere remains. The beer (Black Sheep) however was on top form, and the place was certainly friendly enough. There is also a small post office and shop in the village. Nenthead is worth a mention as the highest village in England at around 1500 feet. The local lead mine company was Quaker and saw some advantages in keeping the workers healthy. The company sponsored and built the first public reading room library and compulsory school in England in Nenthead.


Moors and Mines!

Alston Moor is in the heart of wild country, about as high as you can get in England, with much of the land between 2- 3,000 feet above sea level. At lower levels, rough grassland is farmed with sheep (while huge healthy rabbits also enjoy the grass!). As farmers less intensively farm the land than in much of England, the area is a great spot to find wild flowers. We particularly enjoyed hunting down the colonies of purple violas.

On the tops, the land is little more than boggy moorland, with a low sheep density. Rain shapes this landscape, but we were fortunate to have our yomp over the moors in excellent weather. The red and green splashed sphagnum mosses on the ground however, still covered a veritable sea of still bog water to splash through.

The most striking physical thing about Alston Moor lies with its host of ruined lead, zinc and silver mines. The mines are silent now, but for generations miners would spend the week working at these rural and lonely mines before having Saturday afternoon and Sunday off, to hike across the moors to their families in the village.

Despite desperate living conditions and harsh poverty for most of the workers (but not of course, the mine owners) the population of the moors was far higher than it is today. People in those distant days had to commonly resort to stealing food for their families, and there are tales of fugitive miners living down the mines, fed by their loved ones as the army scoured the area looking for them.

We took a stroll to the moors above Nenthead, which meant that we walked past the Nenthead mine heritage centre. This heritage centre covers quite an area up the valley, with its slag heaps, mine buildings and water wheels. If you choose to go in the mine, you have the opportunity to go underground to discover more about the silver, lead and zinc miners in the area. Some of the mine workings in this mine go back 350 years. Hardy foot ware is required.

The mines were at their peak of production in the late 1800’s, and most closed around the time of the Second World War. I enjoy industrial history landscapes and piecing together how people lived, so the region offers a lot to me. Most of the mine buildings are now nothing more than piles of grey stones and Auden’s train lines have long been grubbed up. Here and there, you can spot ruined buildings, scars and slag heaps across the rolling moors. However, the years have been healing.

As the day was clear, we forsook the attraction of the mines and walked up over flinty fell to the pub on the green in the village of Garrigill. You can spot a number of mine tunnel entrances as you walk through the area, and the more adventurous can choose to explore some of them. The tunnels open to the public are gated but unlocked. Don’t forget that old mines workings are dangerous places, so unless you know what you are doing, or are with a club don’t even attempt to step more than a few feet in. There is the odd tunnel that doesn’t force you to plod ankle deep in muddy brackish water. Even by doing just that, in those few steps you can get some experience of just how hard (and cold) the life of a miner must have been.


Thortergill Forge

You will discover a real labour of love if you speak to any of the Johnston family on the outskirts of Garrigill. They run Thortergill Forge, a blacksmiths forge, a teashop and own the land around a small gorge with a waterfall. You can pay £2.50 for a tour of the smithy and access to the five-minute walk down the small gorge to the waterfall.

The most fascinating thing about the place is the way the Johnston’s simply love this land. The family are as old as the hills, and although a little further south from Scotland, were involved in some clan type wars.

The family lived on the land for generations until they sold it to the mining company in the early 1800’s. After the mine closed during the interwar years, the family bought back the land, by now scarred and pitted by industrial workings. The Johnston’s uncle had a dream to restore the landscape to how it was 150 years earlier, and set to with pretty much little more than a shovel and a pickaxe. It took a new owner (a nephew) and a collapsed mine which brought down the original smithy to take drastic action. He sold his business, and for years toiled with restoring the look of the valley, rebuilding the route of the stream (with a concrete base), capping the mineshafts, and doing some landscaping work. They breed the families hard up north.

The original blacksmiths supported the mine, keeping the mine railway in good repair, making tools and equipment for the mine horses. Today the sons of the current owner run the forge, and make very intricate ironwork for the likes of Harrods and other illustrious clients. You can buy weathervanes, door hinges and the like from the shop.

The teashop serves some very traditional English teas, and we enjoyed our light lunch while chatting with the wife of the owner. Upstairs to the teashop is a fascinating collection of material telling the story of the land, and the families’ attempts to restore it to its former glory. The entrance to the gorge and waterfall walk is here too.


Alston

Of course, no visit to Alston Moor is complete without a visit to the town of Alston itself. Alston is a quaint market town of sloping cobbled streets and compact squat against the wind sandstone houses.

When we first visited Alston over 10 years ago, it seemed almost undiscovered, with its local pubs and the only occasional tearoom. More tourists have discovered Alston since then, and there are far more restaurants, tearooms, health food and craft shops these days. Houses are renovated and there are far more holiday homes in the village. Although the original Alston might have gone, it still doesn’t lie far beneath the surface. Many of the inhabitants are still locals rather than newcomers, and many of the pubs are local pubs rather than geared for the tourist pound.

Around Alston lie those beautiful rolling hills, and the A686 a lovely rolling road set amongst stunning scenery, which the AA (the UK Automobile Association stupid!) describes as one of the top 10 drives in the world! It’s certainly an area for bikers (both of the motorised and pedal variety) and our walks were interspersed with chat with the panting cyclists as they slowly overtook us on the hills.

Alston is certainly at the heart of the community, and it’s great just to wander the streets to soak up the atmosphere of this old traditional country town.


To sum up

My partner chose well although she knows Alston Moor is one of my favourite places in England.

Its countryside seems to epitomise the English way, old and traditional and scarred by its industrial roots and yet beautiful and interesting. Alston Moor might not be for the city lover, but for the rest of us, it is a place worth waxing those walking boots for.


Links

Anyone wanting more information about the Rock House Estate accommodation will find it here: http://www.rockhouseestate.co.uk/

Anyone wanting to explore the tunnels that dot the area will get a mine of information here: http://www.mineexplorer.org.uk/

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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2005-


Recommended: Yes

Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May