Listen In: Echoes in Langstrath Valley

Gathering the sheep down from the fells

Late October, and it’s a clear day. Commoner Craig Fearon has taken to the fells to gather in his herdwick sheep, with the help of his neighbours Nick Gill and Jonny Bland, whose sheep also graze on the same commons.

The images catch some beautiful light but make no mistake - gathering sheep from the fells is hard work. For this gather, the commoners need to cover around 6 miles from the home farms to the head of the valley, and then run over the high ground to ensure the sheep come down from the tops, including the high point of Esk, South Crag and Angle Tarn, and over Tongue Head. The sloping ground is rocky and boggy, and the pace is set by the sheep. During six hours a lot of ground is covered!

A farmer’s key tool, when gathering, is a dog, and farmers often have more than one. Each dog responds to just one shepherd. Between them, Craig, Jonny and Nick have 8 dogs. In this audio clip, you can hear them calling to their dogs to drive sheep downhill on the other side of the valley. Listen in while you scroll through the images.

Nick Gill heads up valley with his dog Jan

Craig Fearon carries a tired lamb

It takes around three hours to get the sheep down from the tops and into the pen which nestles against the fell wall. Then the sheep are sorted using a system of gates: Craig and his dogs hold the sheep in the pen; Nick and his dog encourage them, bit by bit, into the race; Jonny opens and closes the final small gate to send the sheep where they need to go. The colours on the sheep denote which flock they are part of (that’s their smit mark) and whether they have already be treated with protective medications (Nick, for instance, has marked his with orange). Those that have been treated are let back out, so they can wander up to the fell again; those that need to be treated are filtered into a smaller pen, and these are walked back to Nook Farm, where Craig will treat them.

Once down from the hills the sheep are encouraged down to the: they have crossed the beck at this point for centuries

The three farmers cover the first couple of miles on quad bikes; after scampering across the hills, they pick up the bikes and move the sheep to the sorting pen