Mining country

WE took the tank road up to Reeth, the tanks were elsewhere. Reeth baked and basked in the sunshine. We plodded off over the meadows to Grinton where the river flows by St Andrews, the oldest church in Swaledale, and the Bridge Inn.

So, after a half mile we had refreshments, not wishing to overdo it, and anyway it's Number 17 on Mark Reid's Dales 'Inn Way', which reminds me to thank him for covering for me the last two weeks with his nice excursions to Wharfedale and the Washburn Valley.

Farmers were turning the hay, we climbed some pastures, followed a channel of clear water, skirted a valley where bumble bees tried the wild thyme, skirted a creamy old farmhouse and got the big views to Reeth and its backdrop of the great valley junction of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.

Turf track led on up through patchy heather, rabbits ran into a triple-bay lime kiln and sheep bolted out.

This is lead mining country and the remains here are extensive, the most visited in the Dales.

Quite extraordinary is the semi-intact 'horizontal flue', stone built, of arched section lying straight and 1,100 ft long on the sloping moor.

Its chimney on Sharrow Hill has gone, but at its other end, the buildings of the Grinton Smelting Mill have been significantly restored. Externally they are plain, internally they are complex with the curves of furnace and hearths and an impressive wooden gantry.

The giant bellows are no more but their power source remains - the stream and, more importantly, the perpetual spring.

Here we had our sandwich stop. There was the choice of foot-bathing in the tepid dribble of Lemon Beck or, a yard away, the icy gushing of the spring. Just the thing for walkers' foot, just the stuff to soak a sun hat.

Cool at extremities, we decided to continue on the fells. Curlews nest-watched, a frog hopped, a lizard darted, and a three-inch gold and black dragonfly zipped back and forth, hawking a line of rushes.

These grew in a ditch. The ditch runs alongside an earthwork six-foot high and a little wider that aims a straight and strong two hundred yards over the moor. The coincidence of form with the mine flue is separated by a millennium or so, the earthwork is prehistoric.

At the edge of the moor, the views came back. Reeth and the River Swale looked only a quick scoot down the valleyside. We could see the shape of the newly rebuilt walkers' suspension bridge (nearly a bridge too far).

From Bleak House (indeed) we hit a maze of ways, none signed, six radiating from one cottage, plus awkward gates and a blocked squeezer.

Eventually we made it down and gave thanks for the fine bridge, and five minutes later were sitting with the evening drinkers outside Reeth's terrace of hotels, listening to the clack of iron ring on ring, the thwacks of rings on clay, a quoits match.

Fact file

Distance: Six and a half miles.

Time: Three or four hours

General location: Northern Yorkshire Dales.

Start: Village green in Reeth.

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

Date walked: Wednesday, July 9, 2003.

Road route: From the A1 via Richmond.

Car parking: In Reeth, honesty box.

Lavatories: Reeth.

Refreshments: Inns and teashops in Reeth.

Tourist and public transport information: Reeth National Park Centre 01748 884059.

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

Terrain: Fellside.

Points of interest: The Grinton Mines, British Mining No. 51 by L.O. Tyson et al, published by the Northern Mine Research Society.

Dogs: Suitable.

Difficulty: Moderate. Lack of waymarks, so lots of directions.

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

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 Leave Reeth on Richmond road (pavement), bridge, snickelgate on right (signed), path by River Swale then across fields to Grinton.

2 Right to road, straight on uphill at first bend, white gate on right to path by stream (parallels road), squeezer, left over bridge.

3. Dog-leg across road, squeezer (signed), gateway, gateway, 100 yards, stile on right (signed), uphill (fieldgates).

4 After barns, left to track/path and follow water channel then wall to your left.

5 Gate at wall corner to narrow path through bracken on edge of steep bank. Mature woodland descent.

6 Right to track, 50 yards, track on right, swings left between barns, metal fieldgate, 25 yards, loop right on main track. Fieldgates. Ignore a left fork over grassland.

7 Cross road, path uphill, triple lime kilns, 200 yards to flue remains c50yards from their highest end. Faint path for c300 yards, right to track to Grinton Smelt Mill and road.

8 Left to road, bridge, 100 yards, path/track on left, crosses small valley. Cross road, 300 yards on track, right at junction at sunken grouse butt, 25 yards, left to main track.

9 Track on right at 1 o'clock (c150 yards before new wooden fieldgate in fence crosses track), right to track after crossing stream (keep fence c50 yards to your left), fieldgate on left c25yards after crossing a one-step stream.

10 Narrow path at 1 o'clock (Earthworks on left), step-stream. Path gently descends,

11 Path near wall to right, fieldgate, ignore left fork.

12 Dog-leg across road to fieldgate c50 yards to left of Bleak House, zig-zag down, fieldgate to right of barn, 10 o'clock from barn corner, squeezer (before large tree in wall), 10 o'clock, fieldgate beside house, gate on right into garden, gate on left out, downhill, stile, and left by River Swale. The local National Parks Ranger has suggested an alternative route from Bleak House that is 'clear all the way to the bridge'. Apparently you can head west from Bleak House a third of a mile along the road to go down past Harkerside Place.

13 Footbridge, right, gate, path, duckboards to path uphill, right to lane, lane on left into Reeth.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 08:42 Saturday, July 26, 2003