Mungrisdale is a village east of Saddleback...at least its a village as far as visitors are concerned...to the locals it is beautiful, unspoilt Cumbrian valley and which includes not only Mungrisdale, but also the smaller hamlets of Bowscale and Mosedale.
On three sides it is protected by steep green fells, and on the fourth it looks away from Lakeland to gentle hills and the woodlands of greystoke. Whitewashed farmhouses stand against a background of blue hills and Glenderamackin Beck tumbles down from Scales Tarn to flow by the village on its way to join the Greta.
Bowscale was at one time on the itinerary of the gentry visiting the lakes. They would travel by carriage along the gated road from Keswick, and then walked up the long track above the valley to view Bowscale Tarn. The tarn is set in a wild and rugged place surrounded by majestic crags. The story goes that because of its position surrounded by high quarry like ridge, together with its great depth, it is possible to see the stars in the tarn at midday. The tarn is also famous for its two immortal fish that are said to live in the waters.
In the mid eighteenth century local people watched in amazement as on one ocasion troops of soldiers marched across the fell top, then on a later occasion the troops were mounted. These surprising sights were not over in a flash, they took up to two and a half hours in the late evening. The observers were so ridiculed, that about ten years later, in 1746, when there was a lot of troop movements in Scotland, and the same phenomen appeared, they watched for a while then mustered all their neighbours to join in. Twenty six people swore to a magistrate what they had seen and that they were sober, honest people.
The church here was built anew a few years after the spectres were seen, and it has hardly changed since. It stands by the roadside, very plain and white with a little porch which has a cobbled floor, an old oak door opens to a light room which has a view from every window. Some of its possessions from an earlier church are the 15th century bell, the Black Letter Bible of 1617, and the panelled three-decker pulpit. There is a row of old hat pegs on the wall, a quaint little font like a pillar, and a tablet to Raisley Calvert whose son Raisley was 'nursed by Wordsworth'.
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