The shepherd’s cottage
[This is a guest contribution to our blog by ten year old Alexander, who is staying here with us this week.]
On Valentine’s Day, we walked up to Blaeberry Fell above Keswick. We had an amazing view of Cat Bells and Derwent Water from our picnic lunch on a rocky outcrop (see photo opposite).
We were in search of a derelict shepherd’s cottage Ian had told us about. He had taken some pictures of it on the Rooftops of the World Gallery. We squelched across swampy moorland. Dad said “look for grey stone” so we did.
Soon enough we sighted a pile of grey mossy stones in a dip in the mountains. The picture below is of me and my sister in the ruins looking very pleased!
The cottage had been reduced over the years to rubble by the weather.
We reached the cottage and after a bit of exploring found roof tiles and a very old gutter. The gutter was encrusted with rust.
The roof slates were unusually thick and had holes for nails to go through. The moss covered stones defined the outlines of rooms.
Two rust coloured jambs were sticking up like a flagpole. Ian spotted a name carved onto one of them and a date – 12/1/49.
We could imagine what life was like when the shepherd and his family lived there with his sheep.
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