Sunday 28th November 2004

Start point: Birkrigg Common - parking is plentiful everywhere (SD 290 738)

Birkrigg Common

Weather: Sunny but cold.

Today's short walk on Birkrigg Common is not in the Lake District, being just outside Ulverston, and neither is it a fell. It may be small in stature but has enough things to make an interesting walk, being littered with ancient tumuli and a stone circle and not forgetting the magnificent panoramic view of the high fells and Morecambe Bay.

Birkrigg Common is less than a mile from Swarthmoor Hall, the 17th Century home of George Fox and powerhouse of the Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quaker Movement. Their original burial ground is at Sunbrick.

The sunlit Coniston Fells.

The trig column on Birkrigg Common (SD 284 742) features in Wainwright's 'A Furness Sketchbook'.

Looking towards the Holker Estate and Flookburgh across Morecambe Bay.

The magnificent view of a sunlit Morecambe Bay from the top of Birkrigg Common.

Looking across the expansive limestone pavement towards Ulverston.

Black Combe on the horizon.

The 2000 year old Birkrigg Stone Circle (SD 291 739). This view is said to be a possible alignment - stones, path, steeple, tip of Chapel Island and most prominent hill. The vandalism is still evident - one stone bears the inscription 'Stop the Gene War'.

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