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There is a green road in the north of England where beggars must have felt like kings. Straight as the lances of the Romans who built it, the High Way crosses the Yorkshire-Cumbria border, between Mallerstang Edge and Wild Boar Fell, where the last beast of its kind was killed, or so the story goes.
On ancient trackways over bare hills, you don't have to be a romantic to feel the presence of travellers from centuries past. The Chilterns, Cheviots, Downs and Pennines all have their grassy highways, with milestones and pack-horse bridges. Armies, traders and gypsies trod the green ways, leaving just an echo of their footfall for today's pilgrims.
The High Way, or Old Road - it had many names - can be incorporated into several walks around the Mallerstang valley, south of the market town of Kirkby Stephen, east Cumbria. My plan was to start at Pendragon Castle, head up to the Pennine fells to trace the source of the river Eden, and return along the High Way.
It would be a long day, but one rich in legend and history. I would be following in the footsteps of Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur; of one of the murderers of Thomas Becket; of highwayman Dick Turpin; and of the Devil himself.
Pendragon Castle is a slumbering ruin, approached through a field gate beside a little "VR" postbox cemented into a wall. It sits on a man- made mound, possibly of Roman origin, close to the Eden. There is no turnstile or souvenir stall; just a sign saying it is a 12th- century Norman keep. If the brutal Uther ever really lived here, it was in an earlier timber castle.
The present ruin dates back to Sir Hugh de Morville, a conspirator in the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury in 1170....
