Ravenglass - Romans and Railways

Ravenglass is a small village perched precariously between the mountains of the western Lake District and the Irish Sea. Once, a very long time ago it was a very important place but these days you'd be hard pressed to call it a backwater. In truth it's little more now that a handful of houses and a train station - which for the likes of me and Mrs Snail is the essence of its attraction.

The village dates back to the Romans, who maintained a naval base here in what was - at the time - the large sheltered harbour at the mouth of the River Esk. Evidence for the Romano-British presence is still easily visible; our pitch, on the Ravenglass Camping and Caravanning Club site, was within five minutes walk of a reasonably well preserved Roman Bath House and a slightly less obvious Roman fort.  In the years since the legions left, the importance of the port began to diminish, as the Esk slowly but steadily washed silt down from the hills and the harbour silted up. These days there are only a handful of small boats calling Ravenglass home and most of these seemed to spend most of the time we were there resting forlornly on sand banks some way from the water.

Still, I wouldn't want you to get the impression that the place is in any way forlorn or forgotten - because it isn't. In fact, it's rather beautiful, and in spite of its "off the beaten track" location in the far west of the Lake District, far from the crowded stomping grounds of Ambleside and Windermere, there is a huge amount to do here. 

There is the previously mentioned Roman fort and bath house - both of which can be visited at any time, and a few minutes walk further on from there stands Muncaster Castle. Still the home of the Pennington family, who began work on the place in 1208, the castle stands on Roman foundations and is purportedly haunted. Reading the leaflet and perusing the website, we got the impression that this was a smaller scale, more intimate version of Warwick Castle. Had we been around the area longer we would probably have gone and checked it out, but for now it remains on our "to do next time we're in the area" list.

One Ravenglass attraction we couldn't resist, however, was the brilliant Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway also known as "La'al Ratty".  This charming little Railway was originally opened with a full sized three foot gauge track all the way back in 1875 (on 24th, as the website helpfully points out, although the first passenger were apparently not carried until that November, because the line was actually intended to bring Iron Ore from workings near Boot at the top of the valley down to the coast) and, it must be said, things did not initially go well.

It turns out that there wasn't all that much iron ore to be had there, and the line was declared bankrupt as early as 1877 - although it staggered on into the early twentieth century, finally closing in 1913. All was not lost, however. In 1915 the line was purchased by two narrow gauge railway engineers who wanted to test their pocket sized locomotives under the testing conditions provided by the journey up Eskdale. I presume they had business reasons for doing this and they weren't just pursuing their giant train set fantasies in the middle of the Great War. Whatever, by 1917 their narrow gauge tracks ran to the top of the line and the railway began to come back to life.

To cut a long story short, "stuff happened" and while the purely industrial side of the railway never really took off, the passenger services proved popular. Although there was a bit of a scare at the end of the fifties, the future of the line now seems secure - something I'm immensely pleased about because a ride on this little railway line is an excellent way to see Eskdale.

We walked to the Ravenglass Station from our pitch on the C&CC site - it's less than 500 yards - and bought our return tickets to the Dalegarth for Boot station at the top of the line. These are a seriously good deal, let me tell you. For a mere £12.80 an adult can ride up and down the line all day, hopping on and off as you please. By virtue of staying at the C&CC site was also qualified for a 10% discount - and if that wasn't enough we were also presented with a 50% off voucher for the Ullswater Steamers, which we didn't get a change to use on this trip out, but it's valid for a full year, so we'll doubtless get around to it.

The little blue steam train "Wroxham Broad" (actually on loan from Bure Valley Railway Company) was waiting on Platform 3 with a collection of fully enclosed carriages - somewhat reminiscent of the type that used to be pulled by British Rail in the seventies, only much much smaller, some semi open carriages, which had a roof but no doors or windows, and one fully open carriage. Now. This was Easter Monday 2013. It was -2 degrees. Clearly we went for the fully open carriage.

What? Look, we were on holiday and tourists are the only tribe of people who will willingly pay full price for a train ticket and then choose to travel third class because "it's a more authentic experience". It might have been cold, but we were equipped with hats and coats, and after what had felt like fourteen or fifteen months trapped below relentlessly overcast skies there was no way we were going to sit indoors on a sunny day.

So we took our seats in the little carriage and as the very enthusiastic young Train Guard blew a blast on his whistle and the plucky little engine tooted its whistle in reply we chugged slowly out of the station on our voyage up the dale.

It might well have been the first day of April, but it was the first day of April after the coldest March since records began, so the hills that towered above us were still capped with snow. As the train sped up the wind chill increased and our faces - the only exposed skin we had - were stinging. Some warmth seemed to be offered by the plumes of steam belching forth from the engine. Logic tells me that we couldn't possibly have felt any heat from the rapidly dissipating cloud of steam, and I'm prepared to believe that it was entirely psychosomatic , but whether the benefits were real or imagined that fluffy cloud of water vapour was a powerful comfort on a cold day.

It took about forty minutes to reach the top of the line, travelling through some spectacular countryside with truly unique views across Eskdale. We got to the top of the line, watched the engine turn around on a very simple human powered turntable, sat for a bit basking in the sun, then headed back down the line. That was it really. It doesn't sound like much perhaps, but I can honestly say that it was one of the most enjoyable mornings I've spent in a while. Should you ever find yourself in the area I heartily recommend it.