Howgill Fells: A massif hiding in plain sight
Imagine a statuesque range of voluptuous hump-backed hills, cloaked in green velvet and rippled by an amplitude of homogeneous ridges sweeping gracefully down to a petticoat of bucolic pastures. Move in closer and a contrast emerges, for the ridges are separated by deeply riven gills, spouting lively streams that give vigour to an otherwise tranquil scene. With the coming first of a railway and then of a motorway, the Howgill Fells were brought forward from imagination and obscurity for all…