A select group of hardy souls left the warm shelter of their cars to brave the elements and make their way up Giggleswick Scar. Before climbing the scar we stopped to look at a ‘double’ underpass/underbridge/stock underpass beneath Buck Haw Brow. This interesting example is open to the elements between the existing road and the older one, giving views of a decorative header stone.
As we left the road to head uphill we took time to look at a map found in the Northallerton archive and dated 1806, showing four separate routes between Giggleswick and Feizor. Our own route was the shortest of these and was named on the map as The Ox Scar Road.
Once on top of the scar we walked through fields, passing a Bronze Age Burial Mound close to the Giggleswick boundary wall, before reaching a slate gate stoop with the words ‘B Lupton Bu….ley 1880’ carved on it. The Luptons owned land in the Feizor area from at least the 17th century but there were also Luptons living in the Burnley area - was our mystery scribe one of these?
Feizor lay on the monastic route from Fountains Abbey near Ripon, through to the Lake District and Lancaster. Fountains Abbey held large estates in Borrowdale in the central Lakes and also held port facilities at Lancaster. This important route approached Feizor beneath Smearsett and Feizor Scars before entering Feizor as a holloway which is still clearly visible.
Leaving along Hale Lane we turned south east at Meldings Barn to reach Brunton cross roads and the top of Rawlinshaw Brow, mentioned in ‘The King’s Highway in Craven’ as a steep and slippery descent. We chose the level way along Brunton Road, the original route of the Keighley / Kendal Turnpike road before it was re-routed along Buck Haw Brow in 1792.
We passed Brunton House before reaching the quarry area above Buck Haw Brow. Here to my dismay, where three very large slate water cisterns once stood, was an empty space! Enquiries are ongoing.