Swaledale

After breakfast we looked in at the National Parks Centre in Reeth and got some info on our route and a weather forecast of heavy heat with possible thunderstorms and flash floods.

The route started a few miles away, up Arkengarthdale at the hamlet of Langthwaite where hens hang around the car park methodically picking the motors clean of flattened insects, either that or they have a taste for underseal.

A first mile is good exercise, a fair chunk of the day's climbing on quiet Tarmac to track, up and up for 300ft by steep fellsides of buttercup meadows.

Calver Hill is high the other side, sweet cicely scented the verges aniseed, the plant is used in Chartreuse.

We hit Booze, not the bottle but the hamlet that we'd been told at Reeth had many a chapel and consequently no pub. Now there are ruins.

Ruins again, as we started up the valley of Slei Gill, the remnants of the lead mining, its gouged ground and measured grey stone returning to conditions of steep scree-sloped flanks and farmers' walls, a valley empty of people, austere but also very pretty.

Colour came from the flowers against the green turf, purple wild thyme, yellow birds foot trefoil, and on the slopes wild strawberry and in crag crevices the pure yellow of the rock rose.

Sound and sparkle came from a hundred waterfalls, none above six foot but a constant accompanying cascade, a place to dip your feet, soak your sun hat or chew a sandwich.

That done we levelled on to the moor, read on a gatepost a newly pinned up caution about mineshafts, were distracted by a lost lone walker and by jokes as we stepped over Slack Wife Gill, and therefore all took an obvious path, there being no waymarks.

A quarter an hour later we were back on course up a gill, passing rush beds, grouse butts and, at an interesting bit of lead mine landscaping, connecting to the first of many a mile of Landrover track.

We sped to a four-way moorland junction at 1,600 ft.

And gravity speeded us down but the heavy air blunted the long views south. Soon we were in Swaledale with the scents of the sultry valley, the shade of beech, three viewbenches and sight of an inn.

The flash floods hit us on the drive back, if we'd lingered another half an hour in Reeth we might not have made it home that night.

directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

Right from car park, right into village to dead-end road uphill, becomes track then concrete, ignore two left forks.

Fieldgate at Town Farm, through yard, track, fieldgate into field and track gently uphill after barn, fieldgate, 200 yards then at wall corner leave stone track for grass track which loops and angles gently downhill to house ruin, 150 yards angling gently down, path/track to right of wall then becomes beckside path with a wall to right.

Small gate (National Park signs), 100 yards, mine building, 20 yards, over side beck, ten yards, right, cross smaller becks, 100 yards on path to small cairn.

Left on faint path through heather/bracken, beck in gully nearby, 20 to 50 yards to your right.

At grouse butt comprising a short length of wall, number six, (and two butts up from butt on far side of beck), left for 100 yards towards hummocks that look like spoil heaps.

Right to clear track uphill, 200 yards, left to main stony track.

At four-way junction turn left and stay on main track.

Left at tracks junction on valley side, 250 yards then at first kink in wall, right for 50 yards across grass to small gate in corner, down stony gully for 200 yards then straight down to gate in wall (old fingerpost).

Left to path, fieldgate below ruin, path angles down through trees, gate (blue dot), path back to village.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: The Dales National Park

Start: Langthwaite.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way, and 'usage' routes.

Date walked: Sunday, June 19 2005.

Road route: About three miles from Reeth up Arkengarthdale.

Car parking: Car park at Langthwaite, pay and display.

Lavatories: Langthwaite.

Refreshments: Red Lion Inn at Langthwaite. Inns and cafs in Reeth.

Tourist and public transport information: National Parks Centre at Reeth 01969 667450.

Map: Based on new OS Explorer OL30 Yorkshire Dales Northern and Central areas.

Terrain: Valley and moor.

Points of interest: British Mining No. 53 The Arkengarthdale Mines by L.O. Tyson.

Difficulty: Moderate in fine weather.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 16:27 Friday, July 08, 2005