Images of Landscapes and Wild Flowers: Rydal, Cave or Quarry?

I can never say the word Rydal without recalling an American tourist who was staying at the same guest house as us, in York. She asked where we were from and when we told her 'The Lake District' she told us that she had been staying in RYdaaal, with heavy emphasis on the Y and a long and lingering A. That was in 1984 and her pronunciation has stuck in my mind all those years.
On Wednesday we headed to RYdaaal for some photography around the lakes of Rydal Water and Grasmere. Over the years we have walked around these two lakes many, many times. It was one of our 'go to' walks when the weather kept us off the higher fells and became known to us as 'Poet's Walk', mainly because the section between Grasmere and Rydal was often walked by Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, as well as many of their poetic visitors. In the time since we first 'wandered lonely' along these byways they have become much busier. So much so that we now avoid it at peak visitor times and have been waiting for the main holiday season to end before going anywhere near. Parking at Pelter Bridge we took the lane towards Rydal Water, taking a few shots of the lake on our approach, the light was disappointing, but would come and all morning. We took the track up towards Rydal quarry and it soon became apparent that the humidity levels were very high, making the carrying of full camera kit, including tripod, extremely uncomfortable. However, I was pleased that I had made the effort to carry my tripod as it was very useful in Rydal cave where I used a thirty second exposure to make the most of the limited natural light in there.

Rydal Cave, which is actually a close head quarry. It seems to be widely referred to as Rydal Cave, but I think of a cave as a naturally occurring thing and this was quarried. The water isn't very deep and is teeming with very healthy looking minnows. Large slabs have been placed in the water to give access to the back of the 'cave'.

As I went into the 'cave' I could see the walls and roof and wondered why it had been quarried as it didn't look like usable stone. But as you can see in this picture, at the back of the cave is the slate that the quarrymen sought. I believe Mr Fessett, who owned the quarry on Kirkstone and Kirkstone Galleries at Skelwith Bridge, wanted to re-open the quarry, but was not given planning permission.