An unexpected mission
At our Branch meeting on Wednesday 6th, many kind people wished me well. One of them, however, piqued my interest in a very special way. He said I might find it interesting to visit Gelt Woods near Brampton. He had owned the woods many years ago, and told me a hair-raising story about one of his daughters being injured there. He also mentioned that the Romans had quarried wall-building stone there, and had left some interesting graffiti on one of the quarried rock surfaces. If you have the 1:25,000 OS map of Carlisle you can find it at NY531578 (and there’s another at NY526587 that I didn’t get to).
A trip to Brampton
So it was that obscure rural bus timetables were investigated, and – today being only a 15-mile day on the trail – I went out there in the afternoon, the kindly bus driver unofficially letting me out just by the nearest access.
It’s lovely. Really beautiful. The little River Gelt cuts a sharp-edged trough in the pink gritstone, leaving tall straight exposures that must have made Roman quarrymen very happy.
Graffiti hunt
Sure enough, spot on the grid reference NY531578, I saw a little flight of stone steps leading up to one of the quarry faces. At first there is some rather dull, probably late 19th century lettering in the “Gazza n Lil woz ere” vein, but a little further on – guarded by a dodgy path and some seriously misanthropic midges – there’s a rather more interesting graffito that just might be Roman, though I doubt it.
No, we must look even further along. But the path (hah, path? I think not) is by this stage very precarious indeed, so that fingers and gritted teeth are needed for security. And then there it is, just high enough so that I have to jam my toes into the rock a few inches above the path to be able to take even a poor photo:
It’s in fairly poor shape and in any case I had no chance of deciphering it, what with adrenalin-fuelled pupil dilation putting everything out of focus and the feverish trembling of desperately grasping digits making my whole body wobble. I’m sure, though, that I found it. Here it is in context, seen from the riverbank.
There’s no doubt Gelt Wood is a very special place. I’m thrilled I got the chance to visit.
Disclaimer
Of course, we do need to clarify – for Sally, mainly – that the six-inch wide strip of leaf litter, held together by a few plants, that I was standing on was totally 100% safe and without risk. And even if it had collapsed, the 20 foot sheer drop to gritstone riverbank would have been entirely trouble-free.