Last updated 11:24, Thursday, 18 September 2008

After summer’s deluge, it’s time to retreat to an easy mud-free ramble

Pretty as a picture: The old chancel near Ireby

MAP: OS Explorer map OL4.

Start: The Lion pub in Ireby. Please park considerately in the village.

Public transport: Buses 73/73A and 604 (telephone 0871 200 2233).

Refreshments: The Lion, Ireby.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Total ascent: 311ft

Time: 90 minutes

Grade: Easy

Overview: If, like me, you’re starting to get frustrated by having to wade along waterlogged paths or slip-slide your way across muddy fields and fells after weeks of heavy summer rain, this week’s route will come as a welcome respite. This short, easy stroll uses quiet country roads and farm lanes to access Ireby Chancel, a simple 12th century building that sits in the middle of farmland to the west of the village. Hardly a sport of mud in sight!

The Walk: With your back to the pub, turn right along the quiet road. You soon pass the butter cross on the left, the school on your right and, a little further on, Ireby Hall on the left. The road swings to the left and climbs a little.

About 100 yards after passing the road to High Ireby, turn right along a surfaced lane leading to New Park Farm holiday cottages (0.47 miles from the start). Having had views of the Northern Fells from the road, you now turn your back on the likes of Skiddaw and Knott to look across the Solway to Scotland.

When I last walked this lane a couple of weeks ago, I watched a group of small-ish birds, possibly house martins, trying to chase a buzzard away. You will often see crows aggressively fend off the unwanted attention of these large birds of prey, but this one didn’t seem at all perturbed by the less affective tactics of these smaller birds.

Eventually, having passed the farm and cottages on your left, you will see the chancel ahead. To reach it, you need to cross the signposted wooden step stile to the left of the lane and then carefully duck under the covered barbed wire (1.2 miles from the start). Make straight for the gate in the perimeter wall to access this simple, but attractive building. (This is probably the only part of the walk where you might get your boots a little muddy!)

Having visited the chancel, return to the lane and turn left. At the road, turn left again, and then take the next surfaced lane on your right. You can probably hear Cockshot Beck over to your left and, as you draw level with Prior Hall Cottage, you should also be able to see the old mill.

The lane soon bends sharp right (1.8 miles from the start) and the views are suddenly impeded by high hedges on either side. It is only after passing Prior Hall that you manage to snatch another glimpse of the Northern Fells over to the right. Looking over a gate to your left in a short while, you will also be able to see the Scottish hills. On a clear, sunny day, surrounded by gently rolling farmland on the very edge of the Lake District and with good views to be had, this is a lovely place to be.

Follow the lane down to a T-junction with a wider road (2.55 miles from the start), and then turn right. Ireby is about half-a-mile away now. There are one or two short uphill sections along the way, but nothing too strenuous.

As you enter the village, you will pass St James’s Church on your right. The pub is now about a third-of-a-mile ahead.

Points of interest: Ireby Chancel, once part of a larger parish church, was built in the middle of the twelfth century, probably on a Celtic or even possibly a Pagan site. A new church was built about a mile away in 1845, and dedicated to St James. The older building is no longer used for regular services, but it is still a consecrated site and an annual service is usually held here on the last Sunday in August. The building is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

The chancel’s most notable features include an arcade in the east wall, showing three round-headed lancets. Over the door is a tympanum which dates from the late twelfth century.

Outside, two arcade columns were recently reinstated in the churchyard after serving as gateposts in the village. Just below the high central lancet window in the east wall are some carved crosses. These may well predate the Norman church. There are also two medieval cross bases in the churchyard. The village of Ireby got its market charter in 1237 and became a thriving sheep and grain market, at one time rivalling Cockermouth. Wigton and Cockermouth eventually proved too much competition though and the village’s role in the region declined.

There used to be four pubs in the village, The Sun being a favourite haunt of the famous huntsman John Peel. Ireby School was established in 1726 to provide education for eight of the parish’s poor children. The Romantic poet John Keats once visited Ireby on a walking holiday in the early nineteenth century. He liked the village and its people, and commented favourably on them in his writing. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins also visited it, the former describing it as “a very little town with the purple and brown moor close upon its one street; a curious little ancient market cross set up in the midst of it; and the town itself looking very much as if it were a collection of great stones piled on end by the Druids long ago, which a few recluse people had since hollowed out for habitations.”

For short walks in the Lake District, try Vivienne Crow’s new books, Easy Rambles Around Keswick and Borrowdale and Easy Rambles Around Ambleside and Grasmere (published by Questa, price £3.99 each). Available in bookshops.