HIGH CARLINGILL FARM

& LOW BORROWBRIDGE FARM

THE FARM

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

VISITORS

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

High Carlingill farm must be one of the most visible farms in Cumbria. Travellers stopping in the layby on the A685 road look straight down on it and those on the M6 motorway and the west coast main line railway pick out the heart shaped wood slightly to the south on the hillside.

GEOLOGY & SOIL TYPE

The soil is the result of rich glacial deposits in the deeply incised u-shaped valley created by the Lune Valley glacier. This gives way to the permo-triassic strata which are 250-30 million years old.

DRY STONE WALLS

The maintenance of drystone walls as field boundaries is vital to the farm’s management of livestock and control of grazing resources.

There are many miles of drystone walls. There is a small amount of hedgerow which is in a regular management cycle.

FAUNA

There are foxes, deer and the occasional otter and regular spring time monitoring of peregrine falcon and ravens nest sites occurs.

The woodland is home for tawny owls and the pied woodpeckers raise a family every year. They are frequent visitors to the bird feeder along with the members of the tit family and a nuthatch.

Dippers and sandpipers are see on the river together with the mallard whilst the buzzard can be heard mewing overhead.

FLORA

Butterwort and sundew grow in Borrowdale and at the right time of year in one of the deep gills one can find mossy banks bedecked with primroses and speckled with violets.

Some areas of meadowland still retain the harebells and yellow rattle along with other hay meadow flowers.

WOODLANDS

The Wilson family have always protected their woodland with the intention that there would be as much when they left as when they came. Most woods are not grazed and left to nature. Areas of alder wood have been fenced off to regenerate and new woods have been planted as well.

The most famous woodland is the 'Heart wood' which has many stories attached to it but began its life as 'Brokengill' plantation. The pinewood shown on the 1841 tithe map was probably cut for commercial purposes because the family history of the Goodwins of Orton Hall includes the planting of the wood in the late 1800's to commemorate the marriage of Harvey Goodwin to Ruth Wakefield of Sizergh.

ARCHAEOLOGY

The field behind Borrowbridge is known as Fair field, as, at one time, a Fair was held on it. In much earlier times it was a Roman Fort. Many of local barns and farmhouses contain recycled stone from the fort.

An extensive settlement surrounded the fort and work in the 1960's revealed the channels to bring water to it were still open. A rescue dig at that time recorded the bath house and in later years the construction of a gas pipeline revealed the graveyard near the river Lune. Slight undulations in a field higher up the valley are the only indication of the site of a Celtic Settlement.

Borrowbridge was once an inn.

The importance of the site for travellers is evident in the Roman road over Fair mile, Salterwath bridge (the way of the salt traders) and the three bridges standing in line at the bottom of the valley the motorway bridge and railway viaduct are easily visible. Behind them is the small stone arched bridge but tucked into the river side are cobble stones on edge which may have given animals a better foothold as they went to ford the river.

VERNACULAR BUILDINGS & FEATURES

The farm supports a traditional range of vernacular buildings and has two outlying field barns.

INCOME AND PAYMENTS

Income for High Carlingill and Low Borrowbridge Farm is derived mainly from livestock sales. Part of the farm – the land on the western side of the river- forms part of the Lake District Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme. The farm is in receipt of Single Farm Payment and Hill Farming Allowance.