Autumn is a beautiful time in the Lune Valley…

The River Lune rises in the gentle hills of the Eden Valley, in Cumbria, the last western county before you cross the border into Scotland. It flows for 53 miles in long curves, defining a series of beautiful valleys.

It’s most scenic section is where it passes a few hundred metres from the centre of Kirkby Lonsdale, a 13th century market town, famed for its wealth of history and surviving stone dwellings – and also the still-standing Devil’s Bridge, which used to be the main highway into West Yorkshire and offers one of the most photographed views in Cumbria.

This beech tree lives just above the banks of the Lune, on the footpath to the ‘dreaded’ Radical Steps…

…whose 99 blocks of uneven stone challenge the visitor to ascend from the level of the river to Ruskin’s View – photographed, here…