Synod Pilgrimage Day 2

Keld to Gunnerside

Worship in the well-being garden

Today has been another fine day’s walking, starting from Keld and the well-being garden which we visited yesterday. We began with a time of worship  in the garden, looking down the dale, as Mary led us through a time of reflection on bible passages about gardens which are portrayed in Pam Pavitt’s wall hangings at Windermere. On the way out we stopped to talk with the elderly couple staying this week at the manse next door – the wife was a child of the manse, literally the child of this manse, as she spent the first few years of her life in this very house. That there’s now electricity seemed to be her main reflection on the changes the years have brought!

Kisdon Force

We began our walk along the right bank of the river, with a significant stop after half a mile or so allowing us to clamber down to the splendid Kisdon Falls. Then we walked steadily towards Muker, where we first spent a few moments of reflection in the parish church, before tea shops and the Farmers Arms called us to a serious lunch break.

Haymaking in Muker meadows

2.30 saw us on our way again, back through the hay meadows and the nostalgic scent of the new-mown hay, then across the river and headed for Gunnerside. Most of the time we were close to the river, which was sometimes slow and sometimes fast-flowing, and varied in appearance from bend to bend. We watched a dipper at work, and hoped in vain for the sight of a kingfisher – but we know they are sometimes seen on this stretch.

From Ivelet Bridge it was an easy walk through the meadows all the way to Gunnerside, where there

Everywhere up and down the dale
are signs of the recent Tour de France

was some disappointment that the teashop was already closed. But the Methodist chapel provided an interesting and by its coolness welcoming place of shelter for our pilgrims as they waited for the minibus to bring them back to Grinton for a shower and a rest – and later in the evening an excellent meal down in the village at the Bridge Inn.