I’ve written before about Ulverston and its surroundings, but mainly about the town rather than the walks around it.

Ulverston, like Kendal, now has a new identity, so we decided to re-visit and see how much it had changed. ‘We’ being a small group of dedicated dog-walkers characterised by a liking for fish chowder and taking photographs of Lakeland’s Southern Fells – views enhanced by their rapid morphing into the associated southern estuaries.

‘We’ also have strong views about representation or the lack of it in modern politics, so we have decided to become a ‘Sons of the Desert’ group. The idea for these was created by fans in memory of Stan Laurel, a son of Ulverston. One of his early films had the same name and was filmed in the sand dunes of a nearby stretch of coastline. Anyone can form such a society, but apart from drinking, it needs to have stated objectives. We had work to do…

We duly inaugurated our Sons of the Desert group in a local pub with a swift half, then set off to discuss and define our purpose!

We had already decided that, this year, we would begin our get-together with a walk up The Hoad, or ‘up t’oad’ to paraphrase the excellent local dialect of this former part of Lancashire, recently Cumbria, but now administratively governed as part of ‘Westmorland and Furness’, a diagonal slice of Cumbria linking the likes of Barrow, Ulverston, Kendal and Penrith … obvious really.

And there it was. No sooner had the fate of this part of old Lancashire left our lips when it became obvious that we should dedicate our Sons of the Desert efforts to publicising the nonsense that had overtaken its former geographic glory.

The fate of our beloved part of old Lancashire is best summed up by its current gerrymongering – a word we coined as we climbed up the steep path of the Hoad.

Fascinating.. here, in this rather anemic orange line, it is on the map…

If you’re confused, it’s quite understandable. Everyone who lives in ‘Westmorland and Furness’ is, too. It’s the latest product of the Boundary Commission, that beacon of logic and legalised re-grouping of local populations., whether they want it or not. Cumbria – all of it not just this part of Old Lancashire – did not, but that didn’t stop anything.

I can’t think who benefits …. Actually, I can, but hopefully it’s a temporary problem.

Early April offered this hardy group the brighter light ushered in by the clock-change, combined with dramatic, high-contrast skies and the glorious and rather unusual mixture of sky, fell and the unique landscape of the plentiful southern estuaries.

The climb from Ulverston begins at Ford Park, where we parked the cars, put on boots and waterproofs, paid for parking via the honesty box, gave the dogs a mad frishbee chuck on the large grassed area (right hand side only, the kids have the left), before hardening our resolve with a delicious latté at the renamed ‘Base Cafe’, which has wisely adopted the image of The Hoad as its logo.

Soon, and sweatier – for we are not youfs, anymore, we arrived at the approach track to the mightly Hoad.

While we got our breath back, we considered the fine structure before us.

Despite being based on the third of the Eddystone lighthouses, the Hoad is singularly a monument to a celebrated local figure: Sir John Barrow, First Baronet, geographer, mathematician, diplomat and linguist.

His story is worthy of a post in its own right, but that is for another time. Suffice to say that he was a man of the people and sacrificed his early career to found a school for disadvantaged children in his hometown of Ulverston.

Sir John Barrow rose to become a founding member of the Royal Geographical Society. As a senior diplomat at the forefront of the British Empire, he travelled to China and South Aftrica, and held the positions of First Baronet and that of Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804 to 1845.

Somewhat restored by oxygen. We took in the views that never disappoint, and paused to imagine that the great man would have smiled on our small, democratic efforts…

Here in Cumbria, sorry – Westmorland and Furness – despite months of rain, we are finally seeing the odd sunny day. The landscape of lakes and mountains is very green – courtesy of all that rain, but due south from the well documented beauty of the central Lakes, in an area known as the ‘Peninsulas’, the region offers another feature, that of a south-facing sandy coastline full of inlets and estuaries.

We considered further discussions, but chowder was calling. We were due at the beloved Fourpence Cafe in the middle of Ulverston. There was a gentler route down, so we took it. Soon, Sam and Jane were welcoming us and the divine fish stew was arriving.

We will be back…

©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers an exciting journey of the soul guided by lessons, inner experience and outer companionship.

There are two blog streams:

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk

(mystically-oriented writing)

and

http://www.suningemini.blog

(general interest, poetry, humour and travel)