THIS IS A HIGH TERRAIN CACHE FOR A REASON.
BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE STEEP SLOPES, CLIFFS, SLIPPY ROCKS AND DEEP POOLS.
ASSESS THE RISK FOR YOURSELF.
DO NOT TRY AND DESCEND DIRECTLY TO THE CACHE.
***MAKE YOUR WAY UP STREAM TO WHERE IT IS EASIER TO DESCEND TO THE BURN.***
***DO NOT TRY AND GO DOWN THE SIDE OF THE OLD WALL.***
***THE CACHE IS ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE BURN....DOWN NEAR THE SIDE OF THE BURN.***
Some cachers may be aware of a series of caches that I have in the Yorkshire Dales, that relate to the Ancient Sites of Yorkshire, and the activities of two Victorian academics, McMahon & McMahon, who with their lowland Scots guide visited many an ancient site in the Dales. Indeed their reference guide is now a well thumbed book. As part of my own research, I also came to learn about the memoirs of their guide, who was a native of Upper Nithsdale, one Mr Klaus Kinnear. After leaving the area to join the colours, with a life of adventure in India, then a ghille on a highland estate, he came into the employ of McMahon & McMahon, who as experimential archaeologists and research scholars often involved him in their re-enactment of ancient ceremonies and traditions. Indeed, there is a story told in many a Dales village about the old Scotsman, lover of whisky and wearer of Haggis skin briefs.
Whilst reading his memoirs, gained from an old bookseller just off the Royal Mile, I came upon a reference to a visit he paid in the late 1890s to his home area, whilst in the employ of McMahon & McMahon.....
'We set off from Sanquhar up the track to the station and then followed the track, myself leading my employers whilst they rode on pit ponies. Coming to the path for the Witches Pool, we followed it, to the narrow gorge than I recall from my youth, when I was able to run over the hills, and rather than bathing in the pit baths, I would come up here with many a young miner, and wash off the grime of the coal dust from our bodies. Crossing the narrow bridge, which McMahon the Younger remarked as being unguarded at times, we continued up along the narrow path, now on foot, as the pit ponies had refused to cross the bridge. The McMahons made reference to a old Yorkshire tinker they had once read about called Barlow, who had told them off this bridge, and his fright one evening when visiting it. Barlow, was a seller of tobacco and gin, who tried to sell his wares in Nithsdale, having found himself in the locality one year whilst trying to expand his fare, and wealth.
Like many a Yorkshire man, he liked to hold onto his money, not favouring the safety of the Bank of England, he instead liked to place his earnings near where he worked. He remarked in the literature that he happened on this gorge whilst trying to sell his goods to local miners who were digging a tunnel on the other side of the burn, who were in the employ of the Cummnock brewers - Adams & Banks. Having sold his wares, and setting up camp, he found the bridge. Now being a man of the flatlands of West Yorkshire, he found the bridge to be a terrifying experience and only managed to cross whilst on his hands and knees, whilst sweating like a haggis on heat. Once on the other side he continued along the path, which was narrow and muddy, and below he could see the boiling waters of the burn. Concerned about the safety of the earnings, and not wanting to spend a drop on the ale brewed by Adams & Banks, he had in his bottom pack a container with them in. The aim being to retrieve them when he was next in the region. Soon he passed a low wall built into the steep bank of the burn, an old structure now starting to crumble. He shivered at the thought of how steep the slope was, so continued along the path, until he could safely descend down to the burn. It was still an experience, and he found himself at an impasse to go up stream. Clambering along the side of the burn, following it downstream to near the base of the low wall, he soon came to a bank covered in thick moss. He then was oppposite a circular pool, which looked deep, then stopping he found a place in the bank of the burn, amongst the moss, he placed his earnings in a box, then covered it with stones. He then washed his hands, and went back upstream to where he could safely get back to the path.
McMahon & McMahon make no further reference to Barlow, though in his memoirs, Kinnear makes reference to him becoming an employer of Adams & Banks, and became their local seller amongst the pits, factories, mills and rhubarb fields of the West Riding. It is recalled by Kinnear, that Barlow never returned to Upper Nithsdale. I decided to do further research about Barlow, and in an old book about the tinkers of Yorkshire, found him being mentioned as a publican in Morley, near Leeds. Once winters day, I took a journey to an old cemetery, and on a low gravestone, found the mention of ....
Jaccobus Barlow...
Publican and Tinker..
Brewary Manager.
Adams & Banks.
Fine Scottish Ale.