Dandry Mire

 I'm a little late this week for ABC Wednesday as I just arrived home today but at least it is still Wednesday. Let me take you on a walk past Dandry Mire viaduct, 12 arches and 50 foot high; built in the 1870s it forms part of the Settle to Carlisle railway.  The small building in the distance on the left is a chapel

built for the workers on the railway here which at that time was called Hawes Junction but it has long since been renamed however the chapel retains its original name of "Hawes Junction Methodist Chapel". You also may make out a very tiny splash of yellow near the left hand end of the path on the first photo which was attracting a cloud of

these little fellows which I think are Mother Shipton moths (Callistege mi). Do I imagine that the pattern at the edge of the wings are a little like viaduct bridges? Their colour in the sunshine was more like a light mauve than this photo shows. A stunning sight.

Going around the other side of Dandry Mire viaduct shows its curve, and here is a

'sprinter'  train barrelling along the track. The story goes that originally the crossing of Dandry Mire was planned to be an embankment but wagon loads of material later (¾ m cubic feet) and it all disappearing into the mire or bog a viaduct was built.

River Ure and Wild Boar Fell

 

 

 

At the moment after weeks of hot weather and little rain it is a surprisingly dry bog in relative terms although still enough water around.  This peatland is a unique habitat and

the waterfalls show how the peat mixes as they make their way down the fells

One end of the viaduct embankment is a road bridge over the A684 with nicely themed supports. No border patrols but this does mark one, on this side of the bridge it is Yorkshire but drive through and you are in Cumbria.

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet