Falling for Askrigg

ASKRIGG had hardly changed since our last visit in 1999, a little town by-passed in the time of turnpike roads, to slumber until resurrected by James Herriot - All Creatures Great And Small was shot here. And so people come, for that and the landscape. Askrigg is pleasant, not at all theme zone, though there is a newish free car park.

The flagstones glistened after a shower, black-faced sheep posed with their lambs on the pastures but the surrounding fells were near invisible in mist. Mill Gill was down to a trickle but its bankside flowers were out in blue, white, yellow and pink.

We climbed a little and these banks became quite something, steep and high above the water, held together by big beech trees and a spiky mat of sedges.

A side path lead us a hundred yards into a steamy chasm of dripping rocks and ferns and Mill Gill Force, a dramatic 70-ft waterfall. A few lucky crows have nests under the overhanging rocks and nearby was a limekiln with orchids. Geologists will thrill to the revelation of the layers of limestone, shale and sandstone.

We left the beck and cut over some fields, a tight pattern of dry stone walls and pasture, with a perfectly proportioned field barn for each enclosure. My only request to drystone wallers is, when rebuilding, please leave a little more gap in the squeezer stiles, the sheep can't be so thin hereabouts, and walkers less sylph-like than my navigator might get their thighs wedged.

And this brought us to the hamlet of Helm where a B&B ('the best B&B in Yorkshire 1998, Les Routiers) now boasts a dovecote, doves and a revolving summerhouse. George Bernard Shaw wrote in one similar, and John Drew the owner kindly dug out the maker's catalogue.

I have walked the beginning and end of this route before but never the middle, and was charmed by Skellgill Lane - dead-end road, small green valley, a few B&Bs, beehive recesses, solar panel, stream, bridge, swallows, another dovecote but nailed closed, presumably to deter the doves from yanking the onions sprouting nearby, each under a plastic bottle. A friendly sheepdog played ball.

The lane petered out to track, the rain increased to torrential and dozens of lambs crowded under thorn trees, bleating. Born into a promised land of seemingly eternal dry days this could have been their first soaking.

We kept dry feet, the rest of the route was by abandoned railway line, and finally stone flags took us back to Askrigg. It had been a good walk for a bad weather day, interesting and intricate, with something different every half mile.

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

Directions:

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

1. Road beside and above church, Tarmac to track. Fieldgate on right (signed Mill Gill Force) to paved way across field. Squeezer, path, bridge over stream, path switches between wood-edge and field-edge (squeezers, ignore footpath signs to Helm). At fork in wood (sign Whitfield Gill), right 100 yards down to bottom of Mill Gill Waterfall. Return to woodland/field-edge path (signed/waymarked Whitfield or W/Gill). Ignore wooden footbridge on right.

2. Stepped and gated squeezer into field, where there's a ford, old signpost and small metal gate on right, instead go 11 o'clock uphill across field to gateway (old signpost), left (wall to left), gate to path by house, left to road.

3. First road on right (dead-end). Turns to walled track by houses.

4. At junction, left to walled track, fieldgates. Pass house to left, bend.

5. Pass barn, 25 yards, gated squeezer on left (signed Newstead) and left, squeezer, one o'clock, squeezer, one o'clock, squeezer (wall/fence to left), squeezer, squeezer, 11 o'clock for 50 yards down slope then by wall (so wall to left).

6. At junction with track, 1 o'clock for 50 yards, squeezer, left to road.

7. Squeezer on right by barn (signed), 10 o'clock across yard, squeezer by fieldgate, 2 o'clock across field, gate by fieldgate, cross field to River Ure. Squeezer by bridge.

8. Cross road, squeezer, 11 o'clock on flags, footbridge and straight on. Stile into yard, track out, right to road (pavement). Flags on left across field up to alleys around church.

Fact file:

Distance: Four and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales.

Start: Askrigg.

Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: Friday, April 25, 2003.

Road route: About 15 miles west of Leyburn, just off the A684.

Car parking: Free car park, and roadside.

Lavatories: Askrigg.

Refreshments: Inns, Herriot's 'Drovers Arms' is the Kings Arms. Teashops.

Tourist & public transport information: Hawes TIC 01969 667450.

Map: Based on OS Explorer OL 30 Yorkshire Dales, Northern and Central areas.

Terrain: Riverside and small valleys.

Points of interest: Another waterfall, the 60-foot Whitfield Gill Force, is a further quarter mile up Mill Gill from point two on the map. When I came here in 1997, I complained that getting close involved 'dicey scrambles'.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Dogs: Suitable.

Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 09:00 Saturday, May 03, 2003