Keep safe!

Keep safe!
You are responsible for your own safety and that of your dog. The walks listed in this blog are not detailed guides. Plan your route! Click the landrover image for safety advice from Bowland Pennine MRT.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway was built to to ferry iron ore from workings near Boot to Ravenglass on the west coast of Cumbria. Having been saved from closure in the 1960s the Railway now carries thousands of passengers each year on the seven mile journey from the village of Ravenglass through two glorious valleys to the foot of England’s highest mountains.

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway provides a geat dog friendly day out in Cumbria and welcomes dogs for a fee of £1.50 per journey. After 40 minutes or so with ears flapping in the wind you and your dog will be spoilt for choice in walks, long or short. There is normally a choice of open or closed carriages, hauled by one of the four miniature gauge steam locomotives in regular service or one of the diesel units.

Hiking to the top of one of the surrounding peaks is not everyone's cup of tea and with that in mind our walk took in a couple of miles of some great valley walking and provided lots of opportunities for the the dogs favourite pastimes, swimming and fetch.


Swimming in the Esk

From the station we headed towards the Brook House Inn before turning right along the well signposted track leading to St Catherine's Church. The track passes several cottages before reaching the small church beside the River Esk. Here, you can use stepping stones to cross the river or head upstream for a short way before crossing over a small footbridge and following the path back past Gill Force. There are many deep pools in the river which, provided the flow is light, make for great swimming! Following the river downsteam we found more open woodland and fields for a long game of fetch before winding our way back past Dalegarth Hall to the station at Dalegarth.

The dog was made welcome in the bar area of the Brook House Inn, which also has plenty of outside seating if the sun is shining. All in all a great dog friendly day out!

Click here for information about the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. .

2 comments:

SocEntBlog said...

Hi there, love the blog do you fancy coming on BBC Radio Lancashire and having a chat about it sometime?

Dave said...

Hi. Thanks for the offer. Not good timing for us at the moment but hope you round up some interesting local bloggers. I expect @prestontaxi would give some good entertainment!