The first reference to its name on the map is the hamlet of Newbiggin-on-Lune, where the river is held to bubble up from the ancient and holy perennial spring of St Helen’s Well. Other authorities point out that the stream below the village is called Sandwath Beck, and only beyond its confluence with Weasdale Beck, a mile downstream at Wath, does it become the Lune. Yet by the time its reaches Newbiggin, Sandwath Beck is already into its third name, having started life out as Dale Gill and then become Greenside Beck. Up the hill behind Newbiggin, Dale Gill issues from a couple of uncertain springs, just below the summit of Green Bell, and it is from here that longest meandering course to the sea can be traced.
Built in the 18th century, Smardale Bridge straddles Scandal Beck (Walk 2)
However, the consideration of height adds yet another factor to the debate. Without doubt, at 723m Ingleborough is the river’s most lofty source, although any rain falling on the summit is immediately sucked into the labyrinth of fissures, pots and caves beneath the mountain and only reappears much lower down its flanks. The beginning of the highest continuous stream is a shallow tarn at around 665m on the summit of Baugh Fell, from which flows the River Rawthey. Perhaps the only way to be certain of having dipped your toe in the river’s source is to visit all five locations.
Whatever its beginnings, the River Lune has a catchment extending over 430 square miles (1114km2), but it is peculiarly one-sided in that, for much of its length, the western watershed is less than two miles from the river, so all major input is from the east. The only significant streams that contradict this lopsidedness are Birk Beck and Borrowdale, which fall from the Shap Fells on the fringe of the Lake District National Park, and Chapel Beck and Raise Beck, springs seeping from the limestone of Great Asby Scar, which overlooks the budding river from the north. The Lune’s infant tendrils almost completely encircle the Howgill massif, with only a couple of streams that feed Scandal Beck escaping capture to flow northwards into the River Eden. Further south the Lune’s tributaries penetrate deep into the western dales of North Yorkshire, stealing all the rills and rivulets from Baugh Fell, Whernside and the majority of those from Ingleborough too. Even in its final stages, the Lune maintains its intimacy with the high hills, for the northern slopes of the Bowland fells also come within its grasp.
Landscape
While the Lune catchment lacks the unified identity that designation as a national park or AONB creates, it impinges upon the existing national parks of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, as well as the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Since the national park boundary changes of 2016, virtually all the catchment north of Kirkby Lonsdale now lies within one or other of the national parks and is a formal recognition of its special qualities. The catchment compares well with both the scale and character of such designated areas in Britain, for although only half the size of the Lake District, it is double that of the New Forest. The sheer variety of its unblemished landscape is compelling, and ranges from remote upland fell, crag and rambling moor through ancient woodland and rolling pasture to tidal marsh and coast. Threading through it all is the Lune itself, a river of ever-changing mood sustained by countless springs, becks, streams and lesser rivers, which each display a different facet of the valley’s beguiling character.
A moment’s pause to enjoy the view along Bowderdale (Walk 4)
Although surrounded by mountainous ground, the abrupt mass of the Howgill Fells stands apart and is obviously different from all around. Severed from the volcanic rocks of the Lakeland hills by the Lune Gorge, and from the Dales limestone by the Dent Fault, the daunting flanks guard a citadel of high plateau grounded on ancient shales and sandstones, which is deeply incised by steep-sided, narrow valleys that penetrate its heart. Any approach from the south demands a stiff climb to gain the broad, grassy ridges that radiate from its high point, The Calf, but if you settle for a longer walk the more gently inclined fingers that extend to the north offer something less energetic but equally rewarding. The tops have been rounded smooth by erosion over countless millennia to leave few crags or rocky faces; however, where they occur, they can be dramatic and create impressive waterfalls. Unlike the neighbouring hills, the fells have never been fenced or walled, and grazing livestock and wild ponies wander unimpeded across the slopes. The walker, too, can range at will and experience a wonderful sense of remoteness, although a paucity of unambiguous landmarks and the confusing geography of the ridges can make navigation something of a challenge when the cloud is down.
Flanking the infant Lune to the north are the more gently rising slopes of Great Asby Scar, which is protected as a National Nature Reserve for its expanse of limestone pavement. Scoured of their overburden by the moving ice sheet, and subsequently littered with erratic boulders as the ice retreated at the end of the last ice age, the bare limestone beds are crazed by grikes (fissures created as the slight acidity of rainwater exploits natural cracks and crevices). The deep fissures separating the clints (blocks) collect windblown soil and moisture, and harbour a surprising range of plants and even occasional trees that would otherwise be unable to survive these desert-like conditions.
Looking back to Grayrigg Common and Tebay Fell (Walk 13)
Collecting the waters flowing from the peaty mosses flanking the Shap Fells, the river turns abruptly south at Tebay to enter the Lune Gorge. Squeezed between steeply rising hills, the valley follows the line of a geological fault, which was further deepened by ice moving from the north. It is perhaps the Lune’s most dramatic section, and, despite the fact that both railway and motorway have been shoehorned in alongside the original road, the river retains a delightful separateness and one can meander through, oblivious of the intrusion. The heights on either side offer superb views across the valley, and the twisting gorge of Carlin Gill is one of the Howgills’ particular gems. Entering from the west, Borrowdale is another little-known delight. Simply wandering along the base of the secluded valley is enjoyment in itself, but include the traverse across Whinfell Common and the day could not be more complete.
Motorway and inter-city rail break out of the valley at Lowgill, leaving the river to a gently wooded passage below the lesser hills of Firbank Fell. As the gorge then opens out beyond the Howgills, the River Rawthey joins the flow, bringing with it the River Dee from Dentdale and Clough River out of Garsdale. The hills now take a step back, allowing the river to snake across a broad floodplain that extends all the way south until the valley of the Lune is abruptly constricted once more at Kirkby Lonsdale. The heights of Middleton Fell are a fine vantage, revealing a dramatic glimpse into Barbondale and across to Crag Hill and Whernside, while the dales converging on Sedbergh and the lower hills around Killington offer alternative perspectives on the river’s middle course.
Below Kirkby Lonsdale the valley opens wide again, and the bluffs on the western bank – although lower than the hills rising to the east – tend to nudge the river on its way. Things were not always so, for the Lune’s course over time has been erratic, and old banks, stranded pools and dry channels betray where it once flowed. Rivers from the limestone heart of the Yorkshire Dales enter from the east, where the flat-topped summit of Ingleborough erupts as a dominant landmark. The karst landscape of the area is noted as much for what lies below the surface as above, and an amble into the valley of Leck Beck reveals some of the portals to this hidden world. Further south lie the Bowland fells, another neglected moorland upland where walkers can experience unfettered wandering and expansive panoramas, a contrast to the tracts of ancient woodland to be found in the deep vales that drain it.
Beyond Springs Wood, the path briefly closes with Leck Beck (Walk 25)
Approaching Lancaster, the River Lune becomes tidal and enters its final phase. At the city’s maritime height, the riverbanks