The Splendour of Wensleydale – 18th November 2018

Fifteen of us gathered in the centre of the small village of Askrigg in upper Wensleydale, which on this bright morning turned out to be a popular destination with a lot going on – a church service, busy shops and quite a few visitors apart from ourselves, all no doubt taking advantage of the good weather on this sunny autumn morning.  Peter G our facilitator on this occasion welcomed us all with a brief outline of our route, as well as giving us the usual opportunity to introduce ourselves; names of some instantly forgotten of course (I for one am not good at remembering names when introduced!) but we were confident there would be plenty of chances to chat individually during the course of the day.

The village itself was an attractive place and we were reassured a welcoming choice of pubs and teashops would await us at the end of our ramblings.  For now we set off up a narrowing wooded valley and were soon away from the village.  We took a brief diversion to visit a dramatic waterfall, Mill Gill Force, which cascaded over a limestone cliff half-hidden in the trees.  Soon after we climbed further and emerged to more open country with grassy fields, stone walls and buildings, leading the eye to widening vistas back across the valley.

On reaching a quiet road we passed through the hamlet of Helm, where a picturesque mill house provided photo opportunities, and descended a little to Bainbridge, a more open village with a green where we paused for a few moments.  Bainbridge is the location for the headquarters of the Yorkshire Dales national park authority, and the village pub is, we discovered, reputed to be the one of the oldest in Yorkshire.   Leaving the village we crossed the river Bain and ascended the south side of the valley, where some Roman remains were pointed out to us and once again views opened up back towards where we had started.

Following the top of an interesting limestone terrace high above the valley we reached a secluded stone circle which provided a handy place for our lunchtime sandwiches.  We reflected on our good fortune with the weather, which wasn’t at all bad for the second half of November.

Descending steeply towards the valley floor we passed a couple of farms and crossed back to the north side, noting the trackbed of the Wensleydale Railway.  We had seen this line on a previous walk further down at Redmire, and there are aspirations to extend it by where we were now towards Bainbridge and Hawes.  We climbed past Nappa Hall, a distinctive fifteenth-century fortified manor house with two towers, built by the Metcalfe family to repel raids from Scotland.  On climbing further we encountered several participants in a Long Distance Walkers Association event and passed one of their checkpoints.

The final stage of our walk was along another quiet country lane and brought us back to Askrigg, where we stopped a while for cups of tea or other refreshment and chat.  On dispersing we thanked Peter for a well-planned event and looked forward to another gathering before Christmas.

Thanks also to everyone who took part, including to Ivor once again for some of the accompanying images.

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