Dog Lonning – Cumwhinton

Early this morning we packed our water bottles and put on our leads and headed for a small village called Cumwhinton. It is about 5 miles south east of Carlisle on the other side of the M6.

Our walk started on a footpath named, it would seem, just for us, called Dog Lonning.

The path, bordered by high hedges and fields beyond, seemed to be well used by walkers and at least one horse recently. We noticed the unmistakable curved imprints of a horses shoe were embedded into the mud path.

It would appear that a ‘lonning’ is a local word for a small path or walkway.

After about 5 minutes our path ended onto a narrow road, just one car wide in places. Turning left, we followed the road leaving the village behind us.

Ahead, a man led the way with a newspaper under one arm. Behind us a couple were also walking with their dog, a black Labrador.

Cumwhinton is an unusual village that seems to shun all the failings of many modern similar communities. It has a shop, a pub and, from the noticeboards we see later, quite a busy social scene.

Either side of the road the fields contained either bailed grass or grass drying in the summer sun.

The farmer in this area was collecting the grass as rectangular bales and not, like you see in many fields the big, plastic wrapped rolls.

Nature strips

Turning left and left again we arrive on quite a busy wide road. For our own safety we are both put on short leads,  so not to cause any problems for other road users as we walked along the edge of the road back towards the village.

A strip of mown grass provided the ideal path for us to walk along. To the right hand side a strip of grass had been left, allowing wild flowers to grow.

Buttercups, purple vetch, ox eye daisies and meadowsweet could all be seen as well as a collection of bees flying between them gathering pollen and nectar.

Passing back past the car we continued into the village and up a side path towards an open field to our right.

We were heading for a place dad had spotted on the map called Quarry Banks.

Keeping a wide berth from two very well behaved horses, and minding we didn’t stand in any very big doobries,  we exited the field via a very convenient gap in the fence alongside a bit of a climbing frame for the two leggers.

Mum and dad went over the fence and we scooted underneath. Well done for the builders to think of us.

Quarry Banks is also known as the Allan Wilson Memorial Reserve, a former member of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust‘s education committee.

A concrete ruler

Dropping down from the horse pasture we come alongside the railway line between Settle and Carlisle.

Dad notices, on the other side of the tracks, a tall slim column of concrete with what appears to be a scale of numbers on.

He ponders on this and decides it is possibly to measure the depth of snow during winter or possibly the height of the fallen autumn leaves.

Buster and I think it is part of a game played by the woodland beasties to see who can tiddle up the post the furthest. We may be correct 🙂

Our circular path takes us past an old quarry filled with very stale water and surrounded by mud.

Charlie is kept well away from anything that will make him dirty as we follow the path  around the back of the quarry and back towards the horse field.

Mum picked some big sprays of creamy white flowers from the bushes, called Elderflowers…she says she is going to make these into an Elderflower Cordial.

As nature reserves go this is quite small,  and only took us about 40 minutes to walk around and sniff everything we could.  However, it no doubt holds a wealth of insects, birds and other critters we did not see on our visit.

Mum suggests that visitors wear proper walking boots or wellingtons as the paths could get quite boggy and slippery  in the winter.

We returned back to the car after a quick walk around the village ready for a bit of a rest and a long drink.

Until next time

Buster and Charlie