Big Sky Country

Although I love the mountains, there’s something captivating about the bleak open spaces of the Pennine Moorlands.  I don’t know whether it’s the “big skies” that really do stretch into infinity or simply the solitude that still exists there but I’m strangely drawn to them.  So as part of our “geobilee“ celebrations, we decided to go onto the moors above Allendale and find a couple of caches we’ve been meaning to find for some time.  It was a very cold day with a biting east wind but the skies were ever changing and the scenery as hauntingly beautiful as ever

Allendale Tar Bar'ls

 
We enjoyed an ancient New Year’s Eve (or Old Year’s Night) custom for the first time in several years, finding ourselves in Allendale, home of Grandma and the pagan Tar Bar’l celebrations.  Local men dress up as “guisers” and process around the village, carrying flaming tar barrels on their heads, accompanied by an eclectic mix of musicians.  As midnight approaches, the barrels are thrown into the fire in the village square to “burn the old year out”.  Luckily, it was a still night. When it’s windy, everyone holds their breath that the roof of the Co-Op doesn’t catch fire again!