Lessons from Crummackdale: The Greener Valleys

This week, I walked at Crummackdale, one of the Craven valleys between Ingleborough and Pen-y-gent. It is fabulously beautiful and  surrounded on three sides by grey limestone cliffs. The scenery is dramatic and causes one to pause and stare. When one climbs the cliffs at Beggars Stile and walks along the top, one sees changes of colour within the landscape. Vegetation on the tops is non-existent or yellow and rough; the further down into the valley one walks, the greener and lusher the grass. The Saxons ‘sweetened’ such land with lime; Austwick Beck helps water it and the surrounding cliffs may have shielded it somewhat from the worst of the elements. God sometimes leads us off the heights and into the deep valleys; there is little growth on the mountains but much more in the green places below.

I went down to the garden of nuts To see the verdure of the valley,

To see whether the vine had budded And the pomegranates had bloomed. Song 6:11

Down in the valley with my Saviour I would go,
Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow;
With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear,
Dangers cannot fright me if my Lord is near.

William Cushing