In Wainwright's Westmorland Heritage , written and published in 1975, that are a total of 110 parishes listed.  It was felt that walking the circumference of each of the parish boundaries ('beating the bounds') would provide a most interesting challenge and take walkers away from the more frequented ways into areas where they probably had not ventured.

I took it upon myself to walk the bounds of the Parish of Strickland Ketel which includes the village of Burneside and Bowston where my parents reside.  Apparently this walk would cover 8 miles and ascend about 400 feet.

As previous, I completed a less popular jaunt, leaving others to climb the mightier bounds of Patterdale (10900 feet of ascent) and Troutbeck.  I guess I might've enjoyed these better but sometimes you should force yourself to tred the forgotten ways perhaps as AW himself would want.

On Friday September 1st 2006 therefore, my mother and I set off on our 'challenge' not really knowing what to expect.  As it happened, a beautiful late summer day turned into a lovely hike through pasture lands west of Kendal.  At first thought, many would never consider such an outing and indeed I suppose my own eyes always rise to the high fells.  However, with my mother in hand we enjoyed a lovely walk taking in new sights and venturing on trails we had never taken.

In the end, the excursion criss-crossed about eleven miles of footpaths and I have to congratulate my mother for keeping apace on paths that weren't always easy to follow.  After the ascent of Cunswick Scar and Helsfell, Bowston seemed a long way distant, but we arrived home satisfied that we had walked the bounds.  I guess not many other people have done this before or since, but for us at least it was an interesting day amongst pleasant landscape.

As usual I have placed my images from the day into an audio-visual presentation:-

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