A natural auditorium?

When intothehills blipped this a few days ago, it reminded me that Fox’s Pulpit was a place that I had meant to search out for a while. 

Today was a glorious day of sunshine and blue skies so, Birdwatch completed and cleaning abandoned, we set off for Firbank Fell, between Kendal and Sedbergh. A steep, narrow road took us high up and there it was – the so-named pulpit. We climbed up the rocky outcrops to get wonderful views all around. Walking further on and the Howgills come into view in all their rugged majesty. 

So – why Fox’s Pulpit?

On Sunday June 13th1652 George Fox, fresh from his vision on Pendle Hill, came here and addressed a multitude and thus began the Quaker movement – The Society of Friends. Although it is easy to see him on the top of the rocky outcrop addressing the crowds this way, it is much more likely that he was facing the other way – my blip  – towards the hills, where there is a natural auditorium with good acoustics, which would hold the thousand or more people said to be there. Just imagine all those people sitting in this awesome landscape, listening and being inspired. 

In 1952 a plaque was erected to commemorate Fox’s historic visit. Adjacent to the ‘pulpit’ is the remains of a graveyard where a chapel once stood. Destroyed in a storm in the 19th century, just about all that is left is a solitary gravestone.

We wandered and wondered. Not another soul was about. It was peaceful, wild, expansive and empty and yet one feels memories of the past embedded in the landscape. As intothehills puts it so well – ‘special hills, old, old hills’. This is a special place and I am so glad we found it.