A Week in the Yorkshire Dales

I had intended to complete a daily blog but the Wi-Fi connection at our holiday cottage was not good and it took hours to upload the photos for the only blog I managed so these are a selection of photographs from the week. This is our lovely 4 bedroom cottage which has been a barn conversion and the owners had made a first class job of it. 

The conservatory was our dining area and we only managed to sit out for drinks on Thursday evening in beautiful sunshine. Overall the weather was perfect for walking with little or no rain and not too hot. 

An interesting tree house discovered on our Sunday walk 

Ken and Anne 

A bridge over the river Ure dated 1674 

On a day off from walking Gaye and I met this lady and her dogs in the lovely village of West Burton. In our long conversation we discovered she came from Carlisle and her son works for Apple in Cupertino, California very close to where Fraser works for the same company.  

Dinner on Monday evening provided by Peter, Elizabeth & Gaye

Another bridge

Sandria wrestles with a Crocodile

Breakfast on Sunday morning

The toughest walk of the week was in Reeth on Tuesday when we tackled Fremington Edge. This ridge walk had a very steep climb up to it but once on the ridge the views were excellent.

Almost at the top and onto the ridge

Walking along Fremington Edge

The view from the ridge into the valley

Near the end of the walk we defended from Fremington Edge to my cousin Hilary's house called The White House where she had prepared a lovely afternoon tea for all of us with help from Gaye. The house sits at 1000 ft up and it has a large garden with lovely views of Reeth below in the valley.

Our hosts Hilary with her husband John and Grandson Sam in front of The White House

The final walk of the week on Thursday started at the village of West Burton which has been suggested by many people as the nicest village in the Yorkshire dales. It rained all the way to the village but as soon as this photo was taken at the start of the walk the rain stopped and the weather improved dramatically.

Sandria loved these wild Sweet Peas which matched her colours

This walk had 32 of these stiles in the dry stone dykes and they were all in perfect condition and fairly easy to get through.

Being slim like Peter was a distinct advantage

Anne and Ken went through together

Some of the stiles even had stone steps to help you get back into the field

This dairy cow had been trying to get over the fence and it got its foot stuck in the wire. Just as we were about to assist it to get free it managed to release itself much to our relief.

The walk took us past the middle part of Aysgarth Falls

Back in West Burton we contemplated putting John and Peter in the village stocks

Drinks on the patio on Thursday night followed by a nice meal in the Richard III Pub.
We had completed 5 walks with a total of about 38 miles and had been so lucky with perfect walking weather. 

Walking Week in the Dales - Day 1

Our group of walkers gathered at the lovely holiday cottage in Middleham in the Yorkshire Dales. Martin & Aileen are here for a long weekend and will be replaced by Peter & Elizabeth on Monday. 

Middleham Castle where there is a Richard III weekend taking place this weekend. 

Our holiday cottage which is the nicest we have had in all the years we have been holding these walking holidays.

Martin practices his golf in the garden. Tom would certainly approve. We are so missing Tom who has missed this holiday for the first time due to being in hospital. He is back home and on the mend so best wishes to him from all of us. 

Our day 1 walk is a circular walk at Middleham taking in the river Cover and finishing along the Moor Gallops for the many racehorses trained in Middleham.

This week we should cross many bridges.

No photograph in this area should not include the many racehorses trained in the area. Almost as many as the villages population.

This one is almost in the centre of the village.

The Canonbie (Overgrown) Walk

The plan for todays walk was to do a circuit of 6 miles and finish with afternoon tea at the Canonbie Community Cafe. It had been hoped that David would join us but unfortunately he had meetings all day. He must get his retirement priorities right in the future and leave Wednesdays free. It is a while since we went to the Meeting of the Waters and the path is now very overgrown and difficult in places. It used to be maintained for fishermen but that no longer seems to be the case.  

A landslip at the Deed Nook may have the people who own houses at the cliff top worried as it looks as if more could slip into the river. 

A new set of steps has been put in just along from the Deed Nook as part of the banking had been swept away in the December floods. Hopefully these ones wont be affected by future flooding. 

The place where the old steps used to be.

With no grass being cut on the paths they are now becoming very difficult to use. 

Across the Esk is the very imposing Woodhouselees.

This time it is Thistles that is causing John a problem. 

The Liddell skewed viaduct separating Scotland from England 

On the old section of railway line to Rowanburn the trees have been cleared now allowing views of the small valley. 

To settle an argument about when the trees were planted Tom decided to count the circles of a large tree. It had about 35 rings so the trees were planted in the early 80s. At the end of the walk we had afternoon tea at the Canonbie Community Cafe where 3 pots of tea (3cups in each), 3 scones and 3 slices of excellent cake came to an astonishing £7.20 in total. This surely is the best bargain for afternoon tea in the country and served by volunteers in a very friendly manner. 

The Sunken Lanes of Cumbria (when we found them)

The last time we did this walk was in November 2014 and many of the lanes were flooded. As they are sunken they are below the level of many of the fields so water just collects in them. No such problem today as they were so dry and overgrown we had a problem finding our way. We even got off to a bad start and had great difficulty following the instructions in the book so it took us half an hour to get on the right lane. There were loads of locked gates as well so these had to be climbed. If the lanes are on the OS maps as rights of way then each gate should have a stile like this one in the photo. Lots of the gates were not in good condition and it was a real effort to get over them. 

The fences were all barbed wire as well which causes problems

This is the best of the Sunken Lanes and is about 600 years old. They date back to medieval times and were used by villagers to move their stock between the villages which is why they have such high banks so the stock will remain in the lane. 

A short break on the village green at Thurstonfield.

This is Thurstonfield Lough. It has many log cabins round the sides of it and is used as a holiday centre. 

Thurstonfield Lough

In the middle of Thurstonfield Village is this beautiful old house. I don't know what it is used for today.

It was just along this lane we went wrong in a big way and added another 2 miles to our route. It is a mixture of bad map reading and bad instructions in the book. We ended up going all the way round a huge corn field and ending up back where we started on this lane. 

The Corn Field with no exit. We eventually found our way back on the right lane and ended up back at Burgh by Sands for a very welcome pint in the Greyhound.

A family of Swans on Thurstonfield Lough

Newcastle Break with our Grandchildren

Gaye and I headed to Newcastle on Monday evening to look after Hannah and Leo for a few days during the mid term holiday. Unfortunately we left the good weather back in Langholm as it was cold, damp, and very windy with the east wind coming straight from Siberia. We did however enjoy our time with the kids despite the weather.

A selfie with Leo and myself.

Leo ready to bake some chocolate chip cookies

Leo has been growing Cress at school.

Mother and Daughter

A family photo

Hannah just loved dogs, but used to be nervous of them. She is now getting used to dogs and this one in particular is going to be a firm favourite. He is only 4 months old and its owner who is a good friend of Fiona's will now be getting regular visits from Fiona & Hannah. Leo is still very nervous with dogs but will gradually get used to this one and will in time love him as much as Hannah does. 

On Thursday I headed out to Seaton Sluice and walked the beach from there to Blyth. It is a lovely walk with the return walk on a path through the sand dunes. It was however blowing a gale and even with 4 layers on I was frozen.