Following our visit to Brampton earlier this week, we have been told of another monument not officially on the tourist trail and only really known by locals.
Perched high on a hill, on the other side of the town to the CaponTree monument, is a rather ornate sculpture to the 7th Earl of Carlisle, George William Fredrick Howard.
Our walk begins at the edge of an area known as The Sands. This is on the eastern approach to the town of Brampton and is sort of a triangular area of grass with a road on each side.
Parking the car in front of the Brampton Fairtrade flower bed we headed up the hill following the public footpath sign direction.
The path was constructed out of worn out tarmac and loads of little stones, some were quite sharp and stuck in our paws.
After around 500m we came upon a few houses and a choice of path. To our right and in front of the houses a very sandy path led past a crab apple tree and away out of sight.
To our left was a woodland area, with quite a well worn path and what looked like a better adventure.
Decision easily made, we headed into the forest to find out what we could see and sniff.
Fallen leaves littered our path and after the recent rain we were very surprised as to the condition of the paths being well drained, with just the occasional patch of splodgy mud.
Our path curved and twisted for a few hundred metres, until we came upon a clearing to our right where, perched high on a sandstone pedestal was our quarry, The 7th Earl of Carlisle.
Surrounding the monument was well mown grass which made the whole area feel a little strange. Here was a monument hidden by the surrounding trees, set in a clearing with manicured grass.
The sculpture was made by John Foley, an Irish sculpture based in London at the time of the commission.
Pictures taken and information recorded, as mum will need to write all about it over on gravestonepix, we follow the path down a zig-zag path and the open sky.
To our right, Charlie hears water and makes straight for a drinking fountain with fresh clean water cascading from it.
Given the size and arrangement we can only assume it was put here to water horses and possibly hounds. It had a big basin above with a small channel below, ideal for us to have a good drink.
Nearby was the first interpretation board we had spotted and it told the humans a little bit about the area and what it may have looked like in the good old days.
The area through which we had just walked is called the Mote. It is thought that an old castle stood on the top of the hill.
On the subject of signs we discovered this old green sign later in our walk and wondered how old it actually was, do you know?
Heading down the path and into the edge of Brampton, we decide to keep away from the main roads and head up many of the side lanes.
Dad has a very good on board compass and he had sort of worked out that if we followed a road to our right then right again we may meet up with the path where we entered into the wood earlier.
Travelling up Union Lane, then past the school on Sawmill Lane, we exited on to a grass path which, after the climb up the hill brought us out at the top of the sandy path we saw earlier.
Thankfully a bench awaited us at the top of the hill so we could have a rest and take in the view.
In front of us in the far distance was Scotland, just ahead was Brampton and off to about 2 o’clock the small village of Walton.
Just around the corner to our right and about 2 miles away is Lanercost and the Priory.
Yipee we had not got lost and we had stayed very clean as we headed back down the hill and the car.
Walks complete and heads full of sniffs we settled down for the ride back home and shepherds pie for tea. A perfect day.
Until next time
Buster and Charlie