Dent Dale

[RobSutton]

This place played a formative role in my career and to this day holds special memories. In days long ago when Peregrines were still rare enough to warrant 24hour guards on every nest I spent a spring living in the next barn above this one watching over a well known site.



Some of the things I saw still cause a shiver to run down my spine when I think of them. The time at 4:30 in the morning when a fox strayed onto the site and the female peregrine stooped repeatedly at full speed straight at the foxes head - hairs parted as the fox prostrated itself on the floor.

Or the time the male was incubating and was being teased by three crows trying to entice it off the nest so they could sneak in and grab a tasty meal of peregrine egg, the female returned and three terrified crows closed their wings, dropped to ground level and sped of straight in my direction. I was sitting outside the barn eating lunch and the crows needed to lighten their load to lift over the barn - yes you guessed where the contents of their bowels ended up.

Or watching the male sitting on his favourite perch as chaffinches searched the leaves on that same perch for insects, he was engrossed and almost rotated his head a full 360 degrees as he followed every movement of the finches.

I learnt much of my natural history in this place and, with a colleague, probably ran the first and very unofficial public viewing of a peregrine site. The official advice was to keep everything hush-hush and top secret but all the bad guys knew the nest was there and the locals were bemused by a couple of us camping out in an old barn up in the hills. So we got the local school kids up to see the birds and gave them the RSPB list of suspect car numbers to look out for - you can imagine how they reacted and they did let us know of a couple of dodgy people seen in the area. Then their parents started coming up to see the birds and the landlord of the local pub came up on a Monday with the left over sandwiches from the weekend. The fell rescue team then started taking over for a night to give us a bit of a break (I'm sure the were put up to it by the pub landlord who relieved himself of lots of our money in the bar that night!) Eventually the whole village took us under their wings (no pun intended) and to this day there are people who will ask me "How are the birds doing?" a full twenty five years since I was there.

A place full of fond memories then so whilst eminent WABers forayed at Clumber I slumbered at work until lunchtime on Sunday when I thought what better than to go than to old haunts in Dent Dale.

Coming down into Dent Dale you pass one of the spectacular viaducts on the Settle-Carlisle railway - always worth a stop.



High above the dale is the "Occupation Road" - so called I am led to believe as it was constructed to keep people occupied as they earned a few crusts under the 18th Century poor laws - nowadays a superb way of walking the dale. The views up dale show the well wooded and intimate nature of what is probably the prettiest of the Yorkshire Dales (although technically it is in Cumbria due to some daft fool in the 1970's doing a bit of geographical reconstruction).



The views south open up the distant vista of the Howgills, halfway both geographically and in landscape between the soft limestone Dales and the harder hills of the Lakes District.



Ironically the weather was almost to good - a lovely bright afternoon after heavy overnight rain left the air crystal clear but lacking in the softness and definition that gives distance to the shots. Still not a bad way of spending a Sunday afternoon.

Also tried converting a couple of shots into B&W thinking they would match my retrospective mood.





p.s. - they successfully fledged three young - perhaps their descendents still nest up there!

[Darley]

Great post and STUNNING photos - what gear are you using? Any chance of the settings too?!

[RobSutton]

Thanks Darley - they were shot on a Canon EOS40D with Canon 17-40mm zoom fitted with a polarising filter. I hadn't taken a tripod with me so was hand holding using apertures of between f11 and f16 and shutter speeds of 1/30th to 1/100. I usually use an ISO of 100 but I think I shoved the ISO up to 200 for the later shots.

[Wild-Woman]

That was a lovely trip down your memory lane Rob. I can imagine being that close to nature is wonderful. Great stuff and great shots.

[Hedge Witch]

Thanks for a lovely story, Rob. Very interesting - I never realised the people of Yorkshire were so friendly (although I guess that they may have been Cumbrian)

Fantastic photos. The last B&W looks slightly surreal - nice effect

[The Woodman]

Too much red wine or not Rob, that's a nice posting. I too have worked in and around Dent for six years in the 90's and still get around the area doing the odd job or two. Garsdale and Mallerstang recently. Some of the place names on the map take me back too, Bluecaster Side, Cautley Spout and Ringing Keld Gutter to name but three.

I know exactly how you feel about the place and as I write this I can feel the tyres of the van rumbling over the cobbles and just missing the Adam Sedgewick memorial as some youth screams into the village on his moped.

Nice one.

[Nettle Runner]

These lovely pics have brought back memories of a walk from Yokshire to Cumbria along the Dales Way that I did some 25 years ago. I did not have the benefit of this fine weather then, suffering low cloud for most of the way, so the B & W images do seem appropriate.

Many thanks Rob.

Les

[PMG]

What a lovely ramble Rob - you've set me off now - I snuck into Malham as you know last week - late on in the day unfortunately but some desire drew me - whenever stressed I used to come and either walk all around the Tarn or cycle around it ........ I've even arrived after darkness and cycled round in days gone by when particularly needing a destress!

I only commented recently that I hadn't been up Kingsdale and over to Hawes or round Tan Hill for ages either - I can feel the need coming on............. but I want it to be the sort of fantastic weather and lighting that you had for these - they are terrific photos hard light or no - very few days are that cyrstal - good on yer managing to be in the right place

Pauline

[Darley]

Originally Posted by RobSutton

Thanks Darley - they were shot on a Canon EOS40D with Canon 17-40mm zoom fitted with a polarising filter. I hadn't taken a tripod with me so was hand holding using apertures of between f11 and f16 and shutter speeds of 1/30th to 1/100. I usually use an ISO of 100 but I think I shoved the ISO up to 200 for the later shots.

Thanks for the info. I wish I could take landscapes like that!

Cheers

[RobSutton]

Thanks for all the comments, I'm glad it touched a few memories for folk.

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

That was a lovely trip down your memory lane Rob. I can imagine being that close to nature is wonderful. Great stuff and great shots.

I don't think I've ever been quite so close or in-tune with nature as I was during that period it was a shame that the need "to get a real job" meant that it could only be a one off. Though I must admit what I do now is not bad!

Originally Posted by Hedge Witch

.... I never realised the people of Yorkshire were so friendly (although I guess that they may have been Cumbrian)

...

I think many of the people who live there still think of themselves as Yorkshire folk even after all this time.

Originally Posted by The Woodman

Too much red wine or not Rob, that's a nice posting. I too have worked in and around Dent for six years in the 90's and still get around the area doing the odd job or two. Garsdale and Mallerstang recently. Some of the place names on the map take me back too, Bluecaster Side, Cautley Spout and Ringing Keld Gutter to name but three.

I know exactly how you feel about the place and as I write this I can feel the tyres of the van rumbling over the cobbles and just missing the Adam Sedgewick memorial as some youth screams into the village on his moped.

Nice one.

Those quieter areas sandwiched between the Lakes and the Dales have a real character all of their own. Perhaps not being in a National Park is a good thing in that it leaves these bits which are just as good relatively undisturbed.

Originally Posted by Nettle Runner

These lovely pics have brought back memories of a walk from Yokshire to Cumbria along the Dales Way that I did some 25 years ago. I did not have the benefit of this fine weather then, suffering low cloud for most of the way, so the B & W images do seem appropriate.

Many thanks Rob.

Les

Thanks Les, being lucky enough to live here does mean that I can pick the days - though I usually seem to end up working when it's nice (and certainly this year) have wet days when I've got time off.

Originally Posted by PMG

What a lovely ramble Rob - you've set me off now - I snuck into Malham as you know last week - late on in the day unfortunately but some desire drew me - whenever stressed I used to come and either walk all around the Tarn or cycle around it ........ I've even arrived after darkness and cycled round in days gone by when particularly needing a destress!

I only commented recently that I hadn't been up Kingsdale and over to Hawes or round Tan Hill for ages either - I can feel the need coming on............. but I want it to be the sort of fantastic weather and lighting that you had for these - they are terrific photos hard light or no - very few days are that cyrstal - good on yer managing to be in the right place

Pauline

There is something therapeutic about a walk in a favourite spot. I find that after a bad day I start walking and at first don't seem to see or hear things but then suddenly something jerks you back into normality - it could be suddenly noticing a different butterfly or plant or stopping to listen to a bird singing and after that it's all alright again.

The road down into Kingsdale or the back road into Hawes are certainly recommended to anybody coming into the Dales for the first time.