A Weekend in Reeth

For the last 14 years we have annually visited Reeth in Swaledale for a girls reunion with Gaye, Sandra, and Margaret who were all together at Dough School in Glasgow many, many years ago. Sandra and her husband Bob have a holiday home in Reeth and its an ideal place to meet up for the weekend. 

I love the many fields with dry stone walls enclosing them.

The river Swale and its very low as they have had a very dry summer and hose pipe restrictions are in place in the area.

This is The White House where my cousin Hilary (our Bridesmaid 53 years ago) lived and now her daughter Meg and their family live there. 

Reeth on Friday evening with the village green full of parked cars

We passed this wall with a plant growing on it when on our walk on Saturday morning

Bob and Margaret (Bob & Sandra's Bridesmaid) on our Saturday morning walk along the river Swale. The dog is called Ruby and she is a lovely dog and quite a character.

Sandra, Gaye and Margaret friends for over 55 years

Myself and Margaret on our Friday afternoon walk along the Swale. It was very hot and humid.

Myself and Bob with Ruby

Margaret and Bob with Ruby. Sandra and Gaye were exploring the shops in Reeth while we went a 4 mile walk. It was a smashing weekend with wonderful hospitality and really lovely meals provided by Sandra.

A Weekend in Swaledale

On Friday we headed to Reeth in Swaledale for a weekend with Gaye's long time friends Sandra and Bob and also Margaret who we met in Gretna to take down with us for the weekend. The 3 Girls have been friends for over 50 years since their days at Glasgow College of Domestic Science commonly known as Dough School. They live near Middlesborough but have a holiday home in Reeth. 

This is Ruby the 2 year old dog owned by Sandra and she was very well behaved all weekend. 

 

After a lovely lunch at Sandras we all had a walk through the village of Reeth. It is spoiled by the number of cars that park on the village green in the summer. This was fairly quiet but at the weekend it is like a huge car park and spoils the look of the lovely village centre.

This is the girls at a lovely walled garden in the centre of the village

Reeth before all the cars arrive

Gaye and I went to visit my cousin Hilary who lives in the centre of Reeth. The cat is called Boris after a certain politician who resigned that very day. Hilary says the cat is as big a rogue as its namesake.

Village Green filling up with cars.

On Saturday morning Bob took the girls to Richmond to explore the shops while I drove up Swaledale to Muker and Keld. This is a typical Yorkshire Dales Dyke and much more elaborate than our dykes in the Borders.

Almost every large field in Swaledale has one of these barns. They store feed and are used as protection from the bad weather in the winter

Swaledale fields and a Barn

A flower meadow in Swaledale

A river Swale waterfall near Keld. There were a few people swimming in the pool below the waterfall but I managed to avoid taking a photo of the blonde in her bikini.

The river Swale

This is the village of Gunnerside 

There are hundreds of miles of these drystone dykes in Swaledale and many of them have these little gates instead of stiles. They stop the sheep getting through the dyke. Many of them don't even have the wooden gate just the very narrow gap in the dyke. On my drive up Swaledale there were many walkers and I enjoyed a refreshment and Bacon Roll at a little farm cottage and sat in the garden with a young Dutch couple who were walking from Tan Hill. We had a lovely conversation and I told them about my granddaughter Hannah who is hoping to go to university in The Netherlands in 2024.

On Sunday morning we drove to Leyburn for lunch in Tennants Garden Rooms which is a beautiful building and a popular venue for wedding receptions. There happened to be a wedding later in the day so the girls took the opportunity to pose in the entrance hall. Tenants is also a very posh Auction House and we viewed lots of lovely items due to be auctioned soon, including several Lowry paintings.

Before we went to lunch Gaye and I were picked up by my Cousin Hilary and her daughter Meg to be taken up to The White House on Fremington Edge overlooking Reeth. This is the zoomed view of Reeth from The White House. The road to the cottage is terrible and you need a high wheel base vehicle but that is due to improve next week when it is being resurfaced right to within a few yards of The White House

The White House which sits at about 1000ft.

Megs Husband Trevor and their son Tom sitting next to the lovely pond which was full of fish.

Hilary, Meg and Gaye outside Meg's lovely greenhouse that has a Grape Vine in it. 

A more realistic view of Reeth without zooming in. It has been a wonderful weekend in glorious weather and with such brilliant hospitality from everybody. 

Sandra's 70th Birthday Weekend in Reeth

We had been invited by Sandra to Reeth for the weekend to spend some time together celebrating her 70th Birthday. We met Margaret and Robert at Gretna and I drove the 4 of us to Reeth in time for us to go on the Wensleydale Railway from Redmire to Leyburn. This is a lovely railway line run by volunteers and today they had added extra trains to take people into Leyburn for the Tour of Yorkshire Bike Race. It was a great way of doing it and avoided problems parking and the service was free with just a collection tin for donations. We are on the old train and these kind of carriages brought back some happy memories from 50 years ago.

Sandra, Margaret, and Gaye have been best friends for well over 50 years 

Having our picnic in Leyburn before the race. Bob and Sandra were the perfect hosts and this was a lovely place just a few yards from where the cycle race would pass in about 30 minutes time.  

This shopkeeper provided Gaye with a chair from which she could watch the race go by

The breakaway group of 5 riders were a good 3 minutes ahead of the peloton but much later in the race and just a few kilometres from the finish they were caught and eventually these 5 finished well back in the field. It was a great atmosphere in Leyburn with plenty of entertainment going on in the square.

On Saturday evening Sandra, Margaret, and I went for a lovely walk along the river Swale and it was the most beautiful evening with so much wild life to be seen beside the river.  

Sandra & Margaret enjoying the last rays of sun beside the river. 

The sun had disappeared in the valley but up on the hill my cousin Hilary's house was still enjoying the late evening sunshine on The White House at Fremington Edge. I walked up there early on Saturday morning and it was just beautiful looking over the town of Reeth

The village of Reeth from the road heading up to The White House 

On Sunday Sandra had planned a walk from the village of Muker up the Swaledale valley to a small village called Thwaite where we stopped at a lovely pub for a drink before heading back along the trail to Muker.

After our walk we headed to Arkengarthdale for a birthday lunch at the CB Inn which was Gaye and Margarets treat to their best friend Sandra. It had been a whirlwind weekend and we had to leave after lunch to come home but the weather and hospitality had been superb and it was a weekend to remember for years to come. Special thanks to our hosts Sandra & Bob.

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.