The Howk!

It would appear that this is a red balloon day so it is just as well that I didn't end up wandering round the garden looking for a blip and got one slightly different.

CC and I decided to go to Calbeck and take a walk up the Howk despite the rain. I have spent a lot of time since then trying to translate "The Howk" from my native Cumbrian into English and I feel I have failed miserably. Taken on its own howk can mean similar to the English hoik on the other hand it can mean to pull or hook as in the phrase "ah howked it oot of a wol" (I pulled it out of a hole). Alternatively it can be used (as I am sure this is what gave the howk its name) "its a reet howk garn up theer" meaning the going is hard I nearly said its a scraffle but I am not sure it would translate either.

So this is a shot of what I suspect gave the howk its name (before there were steps put in). The path leads into a valley which becomes more precipitous and narrow and just below these steps there is the ruin of a Bobbin Mill which until 1924 was turning out (literally) wooden bobbins for the textile industry and employed in it hey day 60 men and boys. The mill was powered by an overshot water wheel strangely set at 90degrees to the flow of the Caldbeck (cold stream). To reach the channel which carried the water you would have had to make your way up this rock outcrop. Hence I believe the name. Perhaps I will treat you to some of the ruins another day.