As anyone who has walked the ridge between Clough Head and the Dodds knows, it is a flat whale back of a ridge covered in peat.  Many of the settlements in the valley below date from Norse times (1,000 years ago) as witnessed by the names.  For example Fornside, Legburthwaite and Lowthwaite are all of Norse origin.  So peat will have been an important fuel for at least since those settlements were created.  Fornside and Lowthwaite have their peat tracks on which peat was brought down from the ridge above on wooden hand sleds.

Like everyone else on the fells today I had wonderful walking conditions with not a cloud in the sky.  I had planned to park at Cowbridge carpark near Hartsop but it was full (the weather had seen to that) so I parked at Deepdale Bridge instead.  Deepdale is easy walking and eventually leads up to Deepdale Hause between Cofa Pike and St Sunday Crag - but I turned off the main path a mile below the hause.