Walking the Dales Way - May 2013

In May, eight of us from Sacramento (Lisa and Richard, Barb and Howard, Shelley and John and Nancy and myself) set off on a little hike in the Yorkshire Dales.  The so-called Dales Way from Ilkley to Bowness on Windemere.  A seven day trip of some 80 odd miles through some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK.

The trip was arranged and supported by a group called Contours Hiking Holidays.  They arranged the nightly accommodations in hotels or B and B’s, the transfer of our bags each day from one location to the next and  all we had to do was walk with a small day pack.  It's a great way to hike.

We assembled in Ilkley on the Monday afternoon and checked into our first hotel, The Crescent Hotel - a nice renovated coaching hotel in the middle of town.  Ilkley is home to a Betty’s Tea Room and it was obligatory to pay them a visit.  Betty's is a very fine establishment that I had visited previously in their Harrogate location.  They are well worth a visit if you come across one.  They are famous for their tea selection and something called the Fat Rascal scone.   

Ilkley is a nice old spa town; very gentrified these days and it is perhaps a little on the expensive side as far as housing is concerned as it is well within the commuter belt for the city of Leeds.

The weather was not favourable for the start of our hike.  As we sat in the hotel bar that evening, the rain outside was coming down vertically, then horizontally from the right to left, then horizontally from the left to right.   All interspersed with breaks of sunshine.  I purchased an umbrella and a bottle of water-proofing spray.  I figured they would serve me well.

The next morning it was indeed showery so we all kitted up with our rain gear and off we went on the banks of the River Wharfe.  The Dales Way trail follows the river for a major part of the way.

Points of interest on this first day:

• St Peter’s Church in Addingham
• The Quaker Meeting House near Beamsley
• Bolton Abbey and Bolton Priory
• The Strid - a narrow section of the River Wharfe where the water surges down the narrows, apparently wide enough for someone to “stride”across.
  
  

Bolton Abbey

The nights accommodation was at the Red Lion in Burnsall.   A very nice establishment with good beer and good food.

The next day was again wet and we walked on the increasingly flooding River Wharfe.   The river was really flowing and in several place it encroached on the footpath making progress a little tricky.

The River Wharfe at Litton

Things of note today were:

• The high water flows over the Litton Falls and past the village of Litton
• Lunch in the Devonshire Hotel in the town of Grassington
• A restored Limestone Kiln on the moors above Conistone
• Sheep everywhere, cute little lambs everywhere.

That night we were in a B and B in Kettlewell.  A delightful little village, which I later learned was the location for the filming of the movie Calendar Girls.   We were to spend two nights in Kettlewell and there were two pubs in Kettlewell, so this first night we dined at the Blue Bell Inn.   Meat and Potato Pie - lovely.

Kettlewell

The next day was again on the River Wharfe but now we were higher up and closer to the source so the river was not so wide or fast flowing.    We lunched at a Tea Room in Buckden before continuing on to Hubberholme, Yockenthwaite, Beckermonds and finally Oughtershaw.   Nothing noteworthy other than the beautiful scenery.

In Oughtershaw there is no accommodation, so we were to be picked up by a taxi and transported back to our previous night’s lodging in Kettlewell.  It was a bit tight, time wise, for the taxi pickup as we underestimated our progress during the day (or we dallied too long over lunch).   

Our second night we dined in the Race Horses Inn in Kettlewell - perhaps slightly better than the Blue Bell but there’s not much in it.  I should mention that our hosts at the B and B provided us with an outstanding breakfast every morning.  As in all cases along the way, we had the “Full English Breakfast” - a fine way to start out the day.

On the next day, our fourth, we were no longer on the River Wharfe and we had a bit of a climb from Oughtershaw up to Cam Fell where we joined for a brief period the Penine Way.   From the tops we had a distant view of the very fine Ribblehead Viaduct before dropping down into the interestingly named Far Gearstones (it is just a couple of farm houses really). Then we climbed up the side of Blea Moor over some pretty rough boggy terrain before dropping down on the road under Dent Head Viaduct and on to Cow Gill.

Ribblehead Viaduct

Of note today:

• Sheep and Lambs of course, they are everywhere
• Cam Houses - a nice renovation of a very remote house.
• Winshaw - the half way point of the hike.
• The Viaducts - wonderful examples of Industrial Architecture on the Sedbergh to Carlisle railway.
• Dead Moles hanging on barbed wire to, allegedly, to deter moles from the field.
• Brass Instrument repair shop in Lea Yeat.
• The Sportsman’s Inn - so anticipated but closed when we got there.  It shouldn’t be allowed to close in the late afternoon.

Moles on a fence

In Lea Yeat, the end of our hike for the day, we were again picked up by a taxi and taken into Sedbergh.  Sedbergh is known for its Public School (for American readers, a Public School is not really that - it is a private school) and pretty much anything in the town revolves around the school.  It is also known as a book town, but, to be honest, I didn’t see much evidence of this.

We stayed in the Bull Hotel.  An old hotel in the center of town that had seen better days but had an attentive owner that was trying very hard to accommodate our every need (cleaning boots, laundry, medical attention, etc).  Thanks to Richard L. for engaging the locals and bringing the local “poet”, also named Richard, to regale us with his poems at the dinner table.

The next day our taxi delivered us back to Lea Yeat where we resumed our walk.  This was our wettest start to a day.  The rain was pouring down as we got going this morning and it didn’t relent much until the afternoon.

Notable things today were:

• Sheep and Lambs of course, again
• Adam Sedgwick’s birthplace in Dent (one of the founders of modern geology)
• The terrible knitters of Dent - quite speedy knotters with an un conventional technique

We finished the day back at Sedbergh and our same room at the Bull Hotel.

On our penultimate day, we walked from Sedbergh along the banks of the River Lune and then over the fields to our finish near Grayrigg.  The weather wasn’t too bad on this day but there was lots of mud and standing water to negotiate.  We were used to those conditions by now.

While we were walking from 10 to 13 miles per day, it always seemed to take us longer than we expected.   It wasn’t just 10 to 13 miles of straight walking, it was an endless sequence of stiles and gates, and where was the wettest and muddiest place in the entire field, it was where the gate or stile was.   That’s why it took us longer than expected to walk a mile.

Of interest today:

• The Lune Viaduct
• Lincoln’s Inn Bridge
• The Lowgill Viaduct
• The M6 Motorway crossing

At the end of the hike today we again had a taxi pick up.  We timed it better today and we arrived at the road crossing near Grayrigg a few minutes before the taxi did.  We were taken into Kendal where the marvelous Beech House B and B awaited us.  We dined in town that night in the bar at the Brewery Arts Complex, an entertainment and dining center in the old Vaux Brewery building.

On our final day again we had a taxi pick up and we were taken to our end point of the prior evening.   The weather was nice, our best day of the week.  We had some nice leisurely walking across grassy fields with lots of sheep.  Nothing spectacular, just nice walking.

We lunched in Staveley before continuing our way up the hill and over the top to Bowness.

Of note on this last day:

• Swans mating on a lake
• the Mill on the River Kent
• The Eagle and Child Pub in Staveley

We finally dropped down into Bowness on Windemere fairly late in the day.  It was our longest day’s hike and we were tired.  Someone kept a count of stiles and gates and, as I recall, it was something like 50 odd stiles and 30 or so gates.   That makes for slow progress sometimes.

It was a wonderful week through some beautiful countryside.  Despite the less than perfect weather we had a great time.  Next year - Coast to Coast, or Hadrian’s Wall?

As usual there are more photos on my SmugMug site here.