The La’al Ratty

Friday 10th April 2015

By the time I was nearing the end of the gruelling schedule that I had set for myself on this holiday I was a wreck. After six tiring days walking I should have found sleep easy, but the night before this walk I had a lot of difficulty getting to sleep and was astonished that I got any sleep. This was because my face and neck were very sore as a result of an allergic reaction to the sun cream that I had been using since Monday evening. However at the time I thought my problems were caused by sunburn acquired before buying the sun cream, so when Friday astonishingly dawned with more sunny weather in the Lake District, I chose to rest my blistered feet and keep my throbbing face out of the sun. My original plan for this walk had been to return up Eskdale to the col at the top of Moasdale where the previous evening I had left the watershed that I had been following. Throughout this holiday I was following the watershed between two rivers from the northern edge of the Lake District all the way down to the sea on the southern edge.

On this day my plan was for what would have been a relatively easy walk from the col between Hard Knott and the steep, grassy western slopes of Crinkle Crags. After passing over Hard Knott and down to the top of Hard Knott Pass I would have climbed up Harter Fell on the other side of the pass and eventually come back down into Eskdale from the crags near Birker Fell. That plan went in the bin as I did something completely different. With hindsight if I had done that walk I think it would have been better done in the other direction as this would have put the longer, more dreary ascents into long, relaxing descents, but that is not the direction that I was doing the watershed on this holiday, though it does still strike me as a walk that would be interesting to do and one that I may try to do at some point in the future.

Instead of walking over the fells I spent the day on the La’al Ratty, the small, narrow-gauge railway that runs from Ravenglass, on the coast, into Eskdale terminating near the village of Boot not much more than a mile from the Eskdale Youth Hostel. I have been on the little railway before; the first time was back in 1997, which was actually the first time that I had ever set foot in the Lake District. I also used the La’al Ratty in 2010 to get into Eskdale at the start of a holiday when I was too tired to walk there, and once again I have gone on the railway because I was tired. But first I had to get to the station which was more than a mile from the youth hostel that I had been staying in, and this involved a lovely walk beside the River Esk that I have done many times in the past. After walking along the road past the Woolpack Inn I reached the gorgeous River Esk at the Doctor Bridge where I followed the wonderful path to the fourteenth century Church of St Catherine’s.

At the church I followed a track onto the road near the railway station where I bought a day ticket that would allow me multiple journeys along the line, but to start I just caught the first train of the day, a diesel, to the coast. That first journey was a delight as I always enjoy being on a train and the smallness of this one brought the experience much closer and made it feel more immediate. I have been on many preserved lines in the past and I really enjoyed this one as the small train trundled past daffodils and primroses that lined the track. In Ravenglass I nipped onto the big train and got off at the first town outside of the Lake District to buy some After Sun for my sunburn before catching the train back to Ravenglass. By the time I was back to Ravenglass the weather was once again just as sunny as it had been all week and I was left pondering my next step.

I saw a sign to Walls Castle, the Roman Bath House, and decided to walk there following my steps of two years ago when I’d walked from the sea to a mountain top, from the Esk Estuary to the top of Harter Fell. I wrapped up against the sunny weather (!) and set off through the woods past the bath house towards Muncaster Castle and had a lovely walk through fabulous woodland filled with all sorts of wild flowers. I had thought about walking all the way past Muncaster Fell below the southern wooded slopes to catch the train at the far end, but I started to be concerned that I was out in the sun that I was supposed to be sheltering from. When I reached the gates of Muncaster Castle I changed my mind and headed over the hill down to the railway line at Muncaster Mill station. A large part of my thinking here was also that I’d paid for a ticket that gave me unlimited travel on the railway so I wanted to get my money’s worth, and shelter from the sun.

I caught the train to Eskdale and when the train had turned around I got back on the train and stayed on it all the way back to Ravenglass. When another steam train was put in front of the carriages in Ravenglass I got back onto the train and headed back into Eskdale. The La’al Ratty (meaning “little railway” in old Cumbrian dialect) is a delightful railway and I could have spent many a day going up and down this wonderful line that passes through such great Lakeland scenery. Eskdale is my favourite valley in the Lake District and this railway is a great way of seeing it without venturing onto the fells, but why would you not want to do that? I was thoroughly wrapped up in waterproofs and must have looked a funny sight compared with the tourists on the station in shorts and t-shirts, but my skin was in a terrible state so I needed to do something to let it recover. Ultimately this was not the right solution as my problems were caused by an allergic reaction to the sun cream and it wasn’t until I stopped putting that on my skin that I would be able to recover.