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North Yorkshire, England.  5 – 8th October 2012

 

 

Attending: The Kelly family (Dave, Kathy [nee Mason], Christopher, James), David ‘Shooting Stick’ Leishman (leader), Rupert ‘West Face’ Roschnik.

 

Weather forecasts were auspicious, a rare feature in UK this spring/summer (except for the far north of Scotland), and so it turned out, with two glorious days for two longish hikes, one to the north of Hawes, the other south.  Underfoot was a very different story: thanks to the saturating summer, the going on both days was soggy in the extreme, especially on the flatter tops where peat deposits or ‘mosses’, are a major ground irritant.

 

All meeting at the usual Fountain Hotel venue on Friday evening, we ate there, and Shooting-Stick (S-S) then suggested trail routes, approved by all, whereupon we repaired to the function room for the benefit of the young ‘uns, and a game or two of pool.

 

DAY 1: Heading in the cars on the Buttertubs road up to Keld in upper Swaledale, we left one car there and took the Stonesdale road to Tan Hill, on the borders of Cumbria, Durham and N. Yorkshire, parking down below the isolated Tan Hill Inn (highest in UK at 526m/1,726ft) on the Arkengarthdale road, and walking up the old William Gill mine road before turning sharp left to wend our way along Annaside Edge and round West Moor to the disused Punchard coal levels.

 

 

 

 

Striking off south to the Old Gang mines at the head of Old Gang Beck on Melbecks Moor, we then executed a sharp right turn, taking us due west down the deep ravine of Gunnerside Gill and the old Lownathwaite lead mines, where we were surrounded by ample evidence of very extensive mine workings and buildings from the 19th century.  Hoisting ourselves up out of the gill a little to the north, we again eventually resumed a westerly course on part of the St Bees Head – Robin Hood’s Bay coast-to-coast, descending via Swinner Gill mines and Kisdon Force back to Keld on the Swale, the dale of which is pronounced by locals, “Swu’adle”.

 

 

The plan had been for those hale enough to then continue hiking up the Pennine Way back to the THI, but we all succumbed to the temptations of both ice creams from the wee parlour in Keld, and the sight of the inviting-looking motor waiting to transport us to welcome beverages at the THI. (Shame! – do we hear off?)

 

Starting out at 10.30am from the Arkengarthdale road, we were back at Keld by late afternoon, with a half-hour stop for picnic lunch (at which S-S produced and imbibed, with West Face’s assistance, the requisite can of McEwan’s Export Ale, but only one). The hike was about 10 miles/16km in length, with little verticality other than at Great Punchard Gill and then, more dramatically, at Gunnerside Gill. It would have been a circuit round Rogan’s Seat, at 673m/2,205ft, the highest fell in the area. That evening, after West Face had entertained us in the residents’ lounge to a bottle of wine by happenstance he had, we crossed the road to the 1st floor dining-room type restaurant, a regular, for slap-up Yorkshire fare.

 

DAY 2: As a contrast to the wild, remote and treeless ‘tundra’ of the typical N. Pennine moorland, we repaired to the rather more benign-looking moor and dale-land of the Yorkshire dales, charting a motor route down Langstrothdale, leaving one car at Kettlewell in upper Wharfedale, and starting off from Buckden, some 3 miles up the dale.  Our one peak of the meet was Buckden Pike (702m/2,303ft), straight up from the village, after which it was due south past the Polish WWII crash site and memorial cross, skirting along the flank of Tor Mere Top to join the Starbottom ‘Road’, an old mine track, and finally, the Top Mere ‘Road’, an ancient moor access track straight down into chocolate-box Kettlewell for a pub stop at the Racehorses.

 

The Kellys then drove home to Skipton, whilst West Face and S-S completed – ja, we did this time; well, we had to, with the others disappearing in the opposite direction, even though a bus suddenly presented itself with ‘Buckden’ displayed! – the circuit back, by climbing up westwards onto the ridge between Wharfedale and Littondale, running NW-SE, to Old Cote Moor Top and down to Buckden on the Litton-Buckden trail.  An attempt to short-cut into the village avoiding the stretch along the Hubberholme road was fruitless: a deepish gorge before the dale riverplain, thickly, and in places impenetrably wooded and moss-strewn, meant we arrived at the village after a slow-going lady we had passed at moor bottom, who’d taken the usual marked route.

 

Having started out from Buckden at 10.35am, West Face and S-S were back late afternoon, with the lunch break being about an hour long. Total distance was about 12 miles/19km. That night we tried out the newly-reopened White Hart Inn, METHS’s original Hawes meet hostelry, now more of a gastro-pub, where we sampled some excellent pheasant. (Unlike the usual June meet time, we were in Hawes during the grouse season, but the price of the fowl, thanks to London demand, precludes local consumption, we were told, even if local hostelries can get their hands on them.

 

We hope our rate, ramented and rong-time AWC meet reader, Axeman, would have apploved of our hike choices!  Those at the meet were happy with the idea of moving it back to early June next year, whether at Hawes or further north.

 

 

 

 

 

© WDYFO, 2012