Favourite Walks and Rambles

[PanBiker]

I went up Weets yesterday, a lovely day for a walk on the last day of Winter. Plenty of sun and a light cool breeze, warm enough when yomping up the hill though. The fields are drying up nicely, (on the surface anyway) not much clag to contend with apart from in some of the usual muddy spots on the way up. For a change I came back via Gisburn Old Track, past Sandyford where there were lots of lambs in the fields. I returned via Lister Well, so my walk was basically Wendy and Cols circular with a bit added on starting and finishing on the croft rather than at Letcliffe.

For Wendy, I was thinking that If you wanted to try any of my variant circulars returning via Gisburn Old Track to Coalpit, Brown Hill or the Edge you could park at Clough next to the New Ship. A convenient start and finish point for you as it would be straight up Westgate to pick up Moorview and Folly, once on the summit you then have the three different return routes available. All would bring you back via Cow Pasture and down onto Calf Hall and back to Clough Park, might be a nice change for you.

[Wendyf]

Thanks Ian, we might just do that.

[PanBiker]

We did a walk around Cloggers and Stock yesterday. It was a lovely day for it with just a bit of breeze but nice in the sun. We went over the fields down onto Brogden, crossed the lane and continued down to the old stone bridge on Cloggers. Skirted the hill ahead and headed for the stile at the right, down the filed and out onto Bracewell Lane. We turned right here and walked up the road to Carr Beck and then took the bridleway into the field. This is the route of Beating the Bounds but there is no signpost at this point to indicate that only a bridleway sign It could maybe do with one for BTB. Anyway, onward to the marker post at the top of the rise in field and then down to Gilbeber, not much progression on this job since our last visit, (maybe an as and when funding available job). Over the next hill a down to gated Stock bridge then back to Greenberfield at Broad Ing and up through Victory Park which was very busy, and onward home. Three and a bit miles, just an hour but very pleasant in the early Spring sun.

We are thinking of doing another of the walks from the AA book but up around Malham this afternoon.

[Wendyf]

We had a Wycoller walk in beautiful sunshine this morning, roughly 5 miles starting just past Carriers Row in Laneshawbridge. Following the Pendle Way we walked along the beckside into Wycoller then up the hill past Parson Lee Farm to the "T" junction of tracks at the top. We kept on the Pendle Way till after the bridge at Turnhole Clough where we turned off the track onto a permissive footpath past the outcrop of rocks then down the hill to Bank House and back down to the beck. We had only seen a couple of cyclists so far but by the time we arrived back in the village it was quite busy. An ice cream from the cafe and we were on our way back along the beck to Laneshawbridge.

Wycoller Hall



Bridge & ford



Bridleway bridge over Turnhole Clough


Signpost above Turnhole Clough...nice walk along the track to Coldwell past Boulsworth but too far today.

[Marilyn]

Stunning scenery.
Wycoller looks ever so pretty...

[PanBiker]

Yesterdays walk took us up round Malham. We drove up and parked up at Watersinks in front of Malham Tarn got togged up and set off on the circular.



Just out of the car park through the gate on the road and we pickup the Pennine Way.



Approaching the dry valley.



The path becomes quite rocky as it winds its way around the valley.



This valley used to carry the water that formed Malham Cove.



A view lower down at a bend in the valley, quite a head of water at one time.



Descending to the valley floor.



The valley opens up as you approach the top of the cove, the water course would have cascaded over the full width of the cove during formation.



Over the last stile and a first view of the limestone pavement at the top of the cove.



The view down the valley with Malham nestling in the distance.



There is no fence along the rim of the cove to spoil the view. 230ft straight down so you need to watch your footing.



Far side of the cove, a good shot of the Clints and Grikes as we make our way over for the descent.



The descent into the valley bottom is via a long flight of limestone steps, a glance back up just after starting down.



Just over 400 to go!



This is about halfway down as the path winds down the side of the valley.



Not far to go, approaching the bottom gate.



Last few steps.



A glance at the cove and the climbers on the face.



A magnificent Yorkshire landmark.



Malham Beck in the bottom.



Another half mile or so and we are down in Malham Village. We are about halfway round our walk at this point and just have to climb back up the other side! We indulged ourselves with an ice cream as we made our way out of the village.



We are heading back up to the Tarn returning via the Eastern side of the cove. We cross the beck and head out of Malham back onto the Tarn Estate.



We notice this sign on the gate as we pass through.



Here's one for Maz, the banks at the side of the path are blanketed with Wild Garlic, the aroma is quite sweet by the river.



First of the coin logs amid the Garlic



Then one of the Bee Libraries in tree at the far bank of the beck.



Then another one at our side.



A couple of shots of the second coin log we come across.





We are following Gordale Beck upstream, this along with Malham Beck are the contributors to the River Aire.



Not far to the Foss



Janet (Jennetts) Foss. Queen of the local Faries she was said to inhabit the cave behind the falls. It's common courtesy to say good afternoon to her spirit at the Foss.



Looking back down the beck.



A short path leads to the top of the Foss.



We climb up from the Foss and onto the road, we could visit Gordale Scar from here but we have a couple of miles uphill to do yet to get back to the car. We cross the road diagonally and take the gate into the field at the opposite side. The path up the fell is quite easy going which is welcome. We arrive at this quite magnificent stair and kissing gate at the top of the field.



We noticed another exit from the field a little lower down but that one heads up in the opposite direction towards Gordale. We turn left and continue the climb.




At the top of the rise the ground levels off slightly with a path on the left which goes down to the cove. We continue forward and slightly to the right to another ladder stile higher up the fell. This sets us on the right path for the Tarn.



It gets a little steeper as we approach the last ladder stile at the top of the fell.



Out in the open now and much easier going.



Not far to go now Watersinks and the car park ahead with Malham Tarn in the distance.



This walk was number 24 in the AA book Sally found. It was classed as a medium grade, (4 walker figures out of 6) route. The guide suggested a minimum of three hours to complete the 6.25 mile circuit, we completed it in 2 hours and 20 minutes without rushing. It was a very nice walk and we think we will make this circular "Dans Walk" in the summer, sometime around his birthday in the middle of July. We would start it from down in Malham though rather than up at the Tarn we like to finish Dans walk with a bite to eat so more scope for this down in the village.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that Ian - I really enjoyed the walk. I did it after my afternoon physio - may have to have a lie down now.

Here's the link to the bees. Not quite sure what to make of it.

The bee bole.

[Marilyn]

Truly appreciated all the pics. What a fantastic walk.
I would love to do it.
We did a spectacular cliff edge walk not that long ago, and I had every intention of putting pics on here and accidentally deleted the darn things as I was transferring them to computer. I've never done THAT before. I was quite dark on my silly self. I am sure we will go again...it's about a 3 hour walk.
On Sunday we went to a beach we had never been before, and I found it really hard going because the sand was so soft, I sank past my ankles every step. What a workout! Walked for about 2 hours and had legs like tree stumps by the time we got back to the car. Was too puffed to take photos! They should send the Army down there to train...
We did discover a fantastic creek for kayaking, but just the thought of having to carry kayaks along that beach to get to it, puts me off a bit. Not a good spot to have a heart attack...

All that wild Garlic. Did you pick any?

[Stanley]

A vicarious pleasure to look at those pics. I did the walk once but there you are.... Thanks Ian, good pics.

[PanBiker]

Thanks for the comments, I thought you might mention the Garlic Maz. No we didn't pick any but we have plenty not far from us here on the Croft. Seeing that carpet must have spurred Sally on as I caught the aroma and noticed a colander full on the drainer yesterday which was turned into Garlic Pesto last night, yum. Nice walk and one we will do again but from a different start.

[Marilyn]

( garlic pesto....shudder, shudder, shudder...ick!)

[Cathy]

Enjoyed the pics Ian, would love to do a walk like that.
(In reality I couldn't, I would probably end up in traction if I walked on that uneven ground for too long )

[Stanley]

It was nice to see the pics......

[PanBiker]

I did variant four of my Weets circular yesterday, it was a nice day for it, just a gentle breeze but warm enough just for my windproof top. I went to the trig my normal way via Folly and Standridge. Off the side and across the moor to Brown Hill but instead of veering right to The Edge I went left and down the other side of Brown Hill to Higher Clough and then out onto Brogden. I went back across the fields to Jack House and then back via Hollins and Cow Pasture, Calf Hall and Parrock to home, took the route to just over 5 miles, 1 hour 50 without rushing. I stopped off at the trig for 10 minutes whilst I had a chat on my little hand held transceiver to a radio amateur station down in Clitheroe, a pleasant afternoon.

[Stanley]

Don't bother trying it today Ian!

[Wendyf]

This morning we had a very pleasant walk in lovely sunshine around Swinsty & Fewston reservoirs, which are off the A59 just past Blubberhouses. It is a convenient place to meet up with my brother & sister-in-law who live in York. We met in the car park at the east end of Swinsty, then did the 6.75 mile walk clockwise around the 2 reservoirs in just over 2.5 hours, finishing in good time to get lunch at The Sun Inn at Norwood, a large & friendly place where dishevelled walkers and their dogs are welcome!

[PanBiker]

I did one of my local circulars this afternoon. Down through Victory Park and onto Greenberfield, crossed the lane and into the fields and onto Stocks bridge, over the hill to Gilbeber and then up to the summit marker on the hill to pick up the bridle path to the gate on Bracewell Lane. Down the verge towards Bracewell and back into the fields to make for the stone bridge at Cloggers, up the hill and out onto Brogden Lane, dog leg and back through fields to Fernbank and home. Its part of the Beating of the Bounds route that I have done the other way along with odd variations to include Stock Village and Bracewell. This route is just over 3 miles and I was back home in just over an hour. It was quite humid out despite the steady drizzle for most of the way round. The fields are completely waterlogged with standing water in any shallows.

I have an app on my phone for Geocaching and this route has a number of hidden caches. I spent a little time in each indicated cache location tracked by the GPS on my phone looking for the locations but only managed to find one from the five or so on this route. I had nothing on me to trade for any of the objects in the cache so I signed its log and replaced it where I found it. The GPS on my phone was quite accurate in locating the one I found. I am only using the free version of the app so a lot of the detail of the caches are hidden. Its quite a fascinating addition to walking so I may upgrade to the full version for my phone. It's not expensive and could provide hours of fun for the grandchildren when we are out and about.

Geocaching

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On another walking related matter. I checked my emails after a few days away and found I had a number of mails from Tom Partridge at Pendle Council. They were all feedback mails regarding the waymarkers and signs that I had reported as faulty on the LCC reporting site. I have amalgamated them all here with the results as reported.

Leeds and Liverpool canal
Signpost with no direction markers

I write further to the e-mail of 03/03/2015 from Lancashire County Council regarding the above.

Made and installed a new Pendle Way post.

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Stock Green
Broken waymark post making it difficult to see stile

I write further to the e-mail of 02/03/2015 from Lancashire County Council regarding the above.

Installed a new waymark post next to the stone stile and attached waymarkers.

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Forty Steps
Broken sign post

I write further to the e-mail of 02/03/2015 from Lancashire County Council regarding the above.

Removed the rotten post. Made and installed a new Pendle Way post.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
No direction arrows on waymark post.

I write further to the e-mail of 02/03/2015 from Lancashire County Council regarding the above.

Cut the top off the existing post and installed new witches.

I think credit needs to be given to Tom and his team that look after the footpaths and rights of way. It's just about 8 weeks since I reported the first of the four damaged way markers or signs. All have been sorted in that time, quite an efficient service I reckon and proof that the online reporting systems is fully working. I have been kept availed of progress at each stage via email when the jobs were passed from LCC to Pendle and now when they are resolved, excellent. I shall continue reporting anything else I come across in the local fields and fells.

[Stanley]

That level of response is impressive. I always found Parks and Leisure under Colin Patten very good as well.

[Marilyn]

I think I am going to have to come walking with you guys.
Wet and windy here today and it fined up for about a half hour just after lunch. I managed to bundle hubby out the door but he would only walk around the block, clutching his brolley and constantly watching the sky. ( he hates getting wet)
It is really rough here tonight, with wind howling and rain lashing the windows.
Sounds great! Good night for sleeping! I love waking in the night to a good storm.
No doubt hubby will have his granny rugs piled high. Will dig him out in the morning.

[PanBiker]

We did the same walk as I did the other day with the grandchildren today but looking for the Geocache drops on this section of the Beating the Bounds route. We visited seven locations and managed to find five caches, two were nano caches and extremely small so just signed off the log, the other three were small cache boxes with tradeable items in them so we took two items from each that the girls fancied and replaced with items from our stash that we had taken. The treasure hunt nature of Geocaheing is quite good for geeing the kids up round a walk, they run to the next one in anticipation.

[Stanley]

Ian, is it you who has frightened me to death almost on two mornings at Skipton Road corner? Blue cyclist going like a bat out of hell..... Nice, but a shock to the system!

[PanBiker]

Not guilty M'lud. Not out of the land of nod at that time Stanley. Two grandchildren with us at the moment so snatching as much sleep as possible. My bike is blue but its not had an airing this year yet, wont be long though. Ruby goes home today, Isla back to mum and dad tomorrow when they get back from Brazil. We have a weekend booked up at West Witton near Richmond for our wind down, (will get some walks in), then it will be bike time. I might use an odd day this week after the girls have gone to give them a maintenance once over.

[Stanley]

Bit of a mystery then.... dressed in dark blue cycling gear and evidently knows me....

[PanBiker]

He might just be a friendly cyclist, there are one or two about.

[Stanley]

He missed me this morning......