> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Year in the Life: 2 April 2022. - URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/2april2022/ - Published: 2023-04-02T07:03:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-19T11:04:45.000Z - Description: We sit beside the porch and take in the churchyard. Whilst we rest, billows of dust plume out of the porch entrance. The dust-busters are in. - Author: Andy Marshall - Tags: architecture, nature, Travel, #exposure, #Import 2023-02-28 18:49, place writing, arncliffe, kettlewell, walk, yorkshire, yorkshire dales, park scar, a year in the life ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2024/01/IMG_1669-1.jpeg) ## 2 April 2022 Yorkshire Dales ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/gaf3edp7ijn0afwcenlnd7i6wjemetk7zg63/original.jpg) ### ## Between the fungi and the fallen tree **We head out to walk the Kettlewell, Arncliffe loop**. The view down to the village of Arncliffe from Middlesmoor Pasture has to be one of the best in England. The C15th Church tower of St. Oswald, set in a nook of the river Skirfare, rises from behind a copse of sycamore. In the village, we walk across the stone bridge, edge nervously past the village stocks and head towards the church. From the road the view of the church is percolated through a lych gate and sentry of yew trees. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/xcf5jp39e13qxtsmnwm7yub5392lkcvea23l/original.jpg) We sit beside the porch and take in the churchyard. Whilst we rest, billows of dust plume out of the porch entrance. The dust-busters are in. We chat to a volunteer that cleans the church every week. She tells us that she recently lost her husband and that he now rests between the church and the river. Her loss sits on my mind whilst I walk along the banks of the Skirfare. Skirfare comes from old norse meaning clarity of water. The churchyard brings a clarity to the line between life and death. This place is polarised, a vessel built for beginnings and endings. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/5e37qgd2izx9wijf1e5lkuyuh677nxpgko76/original.jpg) Shortly before we visit St. Oswald’s, we trek through Park Scar: a rare concoction of larch and oak and moorland - it is a marginal place, a place that’s in-between. The place feels otherworldly - a realm bounded by erratics. It is from places like this that fairy tales are born. It is a place for Little Red Riding Hood, Orpheus and Eurydice, Macbeth and Heathcliffe. It isn’t one thing or the other - it isn’t a moor, not quite a wood - not light, nor shade, not good, nor evil. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/37gsnyftpoyddyvfa14anpxdo0b4kj3nehxt/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/mh42uns4mkgqlhigfpptq2ws18n5wqemzlcf/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/we0dbx1udxnmqjclhpa3165ih4mnco6d2r1d/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/z3zp6m1ldyurqfgtodslyib55w2o5ifxactv/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/z92ifu4eoahcbq1013swq1qd4k8qqaeze77i/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/7cgsljb5a8b31ljzy2785ktizp19z1b8q8ls/original.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/566jfpg20t88uvjx06t185jm8bh9re7wehaa/original.jpg) After leaving the scar I take a little of its wonder with me into the churchyard at St. Oswald’s, but it isn’t until I speak to the dust-buster that I realise why I carry the magic from the hillside. Unlike the polarity of the church at Arncliffe, Park Scar is a living continuum. The transition between life and death is hard to define. Between the fungi and the fallen tree, I can’t find where the beginning begins or the end ends. Indeed in this liminal place there is no beginning and there is no end. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/yrqtoxm8mkhhvqk7gp6omm4bd1ocnkjj8huy/original.jpg) --- ### View next entry: [A Year in the Life: 13 April 2022Somebody has made noble the mundane brick and jammed its magic into artifice. Beyond the styling, the bricks are defined by their texture and hue.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/12/Andy.png)Andy Marshall's Genius Loci DigestAndy Marshall![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/05/IMG_2196.jpeg)](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/a-year-in-the-life-13-april-2022/) --- Readers of the Genius Loci Digest ## What stays with readers > “ > > That aura, those echoes - the muted light is transporting. What a space to feel rooted in history. I'd love to make that journey myself; you've stirred the opera lover and architectural dreamer in me. > > @sonatasips via X > “ > > Genius Loci has rapidly become the highlight of my Friday morning mailboxes, Andy! > > David via Linkedin > “ > > In reading & seeing Andy's work I always struggle to know which is more impactful - his writing or photos. In truth, the two combined are greater than their parts, he allows you to explore the importance of place and time from the comfort of home. > > Peter from Bluesky > “ > > Andy your work is becoming wonderful, remarkable. A so-called breakdown has been milled into its constituent parts, becoming profound construction: through perception, architecture, the lens and the pen. > > Stephen via Email 1 2 3 4 ← Ⅱ → ![The vaulted nave of York Minster glowing with filtered light](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2025/07/GjFbo3aXoAAgtYU.jpeg) York Minster - light through the nave01 / 04 ![Ancient carved stones and timber roof at Durham Cathedral's Open Treasure](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/rt4ccpqm0nalr9e9vv5oxo8invcfxar6wbvq/original.jpg) Durham Cathedral - Open Treasure02 / 04 ![A family approaching the restored cloister at Exeter Cathedral](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2025/06/Clews-Exeter-April-2025-134.jpg) Exeter Cathedral - new life beside the old03 / 04 ![The Iron Bridge reflected in calm water at dusk](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/production/photos/aii66p605mkuajmgvjdqnt9325o42kjghcac/original.jpg) The Iron Bridge - reflected at dusk04 / 04 From the heritage portfolio Three Ways to Come With Me ## Choose how to join, share or support Andy Marshall's work [ ↗ Join Free Travel with me each Friday Receive the free weekly Genius Loci Digest in your inbox - photography, place-writing and overlooked stories from the road. 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