While every inch
of the Lake District is extremely scenic, and you
could drive to and from any direction and be enchanted,
Kirkstone Pass should be approached from the busy
Lakeland town of Ambleside, up the infamous 'struggle'.
"Oh struggle,
Oh struggle, so aptly named" according to the
Lake District's own esteemed William Wordsworth. The
road rises 1300 feet in some three and a half tortuous
miles, a test even for today’s traffic. In 1908
President Woodrow Wilson told his wife that his favorite
walk in all of England was the "three mile steady
almost unbroken ascent" from Ambleside to the
top of The Pass.
This is the highest pub
in Cumbria. It stands right at the top of the pass,
just before the road forks off for Windermere or Ambleside.
The pub is not as old as it looks. It used to be a
house and was re-built as an inn in the 1840s, when
the road was even harder for the weary traveler than
it is today. Indeed, there are many records of people
dying in the attempt to traverse the Pass in adverse
conditions. This area can enjoy some wonderful weather
but it has its fair share of unpleasant conditions,
and more importantly, it can change from one to the
other with very little warning. Never underestimate
the Lake District if you go walking up on the tops,
dress right and plan ahead.
On a clear day (and there
are some every now and again) you will see the land
fall steeply away towards Ambleside, while the impressive
crags tower above you in front.
The Lake District has always
appealed to me, maybe because I was born so close
by. I get a very contented feeling, mostly when I
get away from the little villages and small towns
in the valley bottoms. Up on the fells is where life
is best. I remember one particular walk with Doris
on Place Fell high above Ullswater, with the wind
blowing and the views stretching out all around us.
Magnificent, and surprisingly peaceful – we
saw two people and their dog during the entire stretch
on the tops.
For all its problems with
masses of tourists, it is relatively easy to get away
from the crowds. A very small percentage of visitors
walk more than a hundred yards from their vehicle,
so once on the tops, you could walk all day without
seeing a soul (only to be brought swiftly down to
earth when you wander into a place such as Grasmere).
One story of the Pass itself concerns one Ruth Ray
who came up from Patterdale with her small child,
on her way to see her sick father. As frequently happens,
the weather turned suddenly for the worse, and snow
began to fall. When she did not return, her husband
went out looking for her along the same route she
would have taken. It was a viciously cold night that
was quickly deteriorating, and soon the husband was
in some trouble as well. He would have died up there
too, but he was rescued by a sheepdog, which led him
back to the safety of a farmhouse, presumably because
it was not even fit for a dog out there.
In the morning, when the
weather had abated a little, the husband and the dog’s
owner set off to look for Ruth Ray and the baby. When
they found them, Ruth was dead, but she had wrapped
the child in her shawl and by some miracle the baby
had survived. To this day, Ruth Ray haunts the Kirkstone
Pass Inn, presumably warning walkers to dress right
and plan ahead.
A sign outside
claims the Kirkstone Inn was originally built in 1496,
but though that may be true it was a ruin for a long
time before the rebuilding project. The Kirkstone
Inn was put up for sale in September 1998, and it
can be yours for £400,000 (about $700,000).
Pattie Yates had run the pub for many years but was
intending to return to her native Blackpool. She said
that she had never intended to run a pub, but having
fallen in love with the building when she first saw
it and learned it was for sale in 1988. She has many
stories of ghosts wandering about in the Kirkstone
– a blind man who knew all about her, shortly
after she had arrived, and strange noises, and just
a sense that someone was there. She had been assured
by one of the spirits that she should not worry because
none of the ghosts wished her any harm.
Such is her affinity for
the pub and its occupants, invited or otherwise, that
she has never felt frightened, even with fierce storms
knocking out the electricity, and candles blowing
in unexplained drafts. Not so for everyone. Some customers
have been known to take one step inside the pub, and
wish to venture no further. Many, many people have
reported feeling the presence of ghosts in the Kirkstone
Inn. On one occasion a group of friends booked all
three rooms for three nights. In the middle of the
first night one woman took fright and went out to
sleep in the car. She would not go back in and the
whole party had to leave despite their plans and lost
their deposit.
Can you take one more
story of the Ghosts of Kirkstone? Still on the wall
today hangs a copy of a picture of the church in the
nearby village of Troutbeck. The original still hangs
in Troutbeck Church. It is a picture of Reverend Sewell
who helped rebuild the Inn in 1847. If you compare
the two pictures, you will see that in the copy there
is the figure of a man standing behind Reverend Sewell.
In the original, this other man does not appear.
The inn certainly
feels old and cozy. It is a long, low building with
old black beams and a stone floor. The beer was perfect,
though the food was not exactly what it had claimed
to be. The fire was a welcome necessity.