The Claife Crier

We left home in brilliant sunshine and arrived on the shores of Windermere, 25 miles away, in thick mist.

Mist is just the weather you want for the walk we were planning to do over Claife Heights.....

Claife Heights is said the be haunted by the Claife Crier, the ghost of a medieval monk from Furness Abbey, whose mission was the rescue of 'fallen' women. He mistakenly fell in love with one of his case load and was rejected by her. Consequently he went mad (as you would) and cried his anguish on the heights of Claife until he died.

He has haunted the Heights ever since.

On one occasion, the Windermere ferryman mistook his haunting cry for a call, and he went out to pick up his fare. When he returned, his hair had turned white and he never spoke again. Subsequently, the ghost was exorcised and his spirit confined to the quarry known as the Crier of Claife Quarry (grid reference. SD 384981).

To this day there are stories of walkers being followed by a hooded figure at dusk on the heights of Claife...

Eventually the mist lifted and the only thing that could possibly be rustling in the undergrowth was our trusty dog.