Posted by Simon Dakin on October 20, 2003 at 10:02:54 from 195.92.168.173 user dakin80.
After having recently returned from 3 years in Australia I'm slowly working through the backlog of TARS materials that awaited me. I've just started reading Jibbooms and Bobstays and on p14 is a real shocker (sorry I'm still trying to loose my Australianisms):
"Nancy's High Street sounds like the Walna Scar Road, crossing Little Arrow Moor before climbing to 2000ft (600m) on the shoulder of Brown Pike (SD 261966), before dropping over the watershed to Dunnerdale (Dundale?) and the Duddon Valley."
I presume that this refers to SD:
"And there's Scawfell, and Skiddaw, and that's Helvellyn, and the pointed one's Ill Bell, and there's High Street, where the Ancient Britons had a road along the top of the Mountains."
Well having walked over High Street it's clear to me that Nancy is talking about this mountain which is visible from the summit of Coniston Old Man and is 13 1/4 miles distant. My A. Wainwright guide says:
"Any person so favoured may recline on the grass and witness, in his mind's eye, a pageant of history, for he has been preceded here by the ancient Britons who built their huts in the valleys around, by the Roman legions who marched across the top of the fell, by the Scots invaders who were repulsed on the Troutbeck slopes, and later by the dalesfolk who gathered on this lofty height for annual meetings and festivities."
OS maps are marked with the former Roman road over the mountain.
BTW Wainwright also mentions that Scawfell was the former spelling of Scafell.
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I used the search option and couldn't find any references.
Simon