Megan’s Fold

Not the best day to go Sheepfold Hunting, but go we did. We drove in the rain along some pretty narrow, wet roads around Tebay and found - Megan’s Fold at Bretherdale. It was alone on a hill and seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, although the M6 was close by and we were actually heading for Yew Tree Farm

This is Megan’s Fold, one of Andy Goldsworthy’s renovated sheepfolds. The building of it deliberately spanned two centuries, half being built in December 1999 and the other half in January 2000. You can see the vertical line that was the transition from one century to the next. Normally, in dry-stone walling, such a joint would be avoided, but Goldsworthy wanted it to be a line that marked time, like a tide line or rings on a tree.

Steve Allen, who worked with Andy for much of his sheepfold building, was given the chance to name this one and it became Megan’s Fold after his daughter, who was born in the early hours of 1st January 2000. It is a sheepfold that is obviously well-used by the farm and has a good gate.

It was wild and wet as we left the car and it was a matter of taking a few quick shots before the camera got wet. However, even after a conversion to black and white, you can still see a few splodges of water.