Baldersdale

Blog readers are going to have to get used to the word “Baldersdale”. It seems thaat 2013 is going to be the year of Baldersdale.  I have several walks coming up in it.

Yesterday, I got an email from the Council giving me some details of a walk I’ll be leading for the North Pennines AONB Pennine Journey Festival in September. The walk goes from Tan Hill to Baldersdale on the Pennine Way and the Bowes Loop  and yer punters will get to Tan Hill by bus from a car park in Baldersdale. Justaminnit, I thought – that car park’s very small and the bus might get stuck on the narrow road.

Sooo. as I’m also about to submit a route for the summer guided walks programme involving the Pennine Way and Race Yate and stuff, I thought I could justify an early reccy to confirm my thoughts about the car park (fascinating stuff , this, eh?) and see if the bridleway from Race Yate  Eastwards on the PW is OK to walk on.

So, outrageously early in the warm and grey this morning, me and the Dawg parked the knipemobile in one of the Balderhead reservoir car parks and went and had a look.

It was just as I thought. I’ve emailed the AONB peeps to tell ‘em the car park’s too small and they’re considering the Balderhead start instead. This would be much better.

The rest of the walk went well. The bridleway is a grand and easy toddle gently downhill for a couple of miles with extensive views to the South.

I met a chap mending a stone wall and had a long chat. (This kind of thing happens fairly frequently in the North-East). He told me the location of some millstones in an old quarry and I told him that there was a cup and ring rock on Goldsborough and roughly where it was.

me and the Dawg lunched on a chicken leg and an orange back at the knipemobile (Bruno not too fussed about having some orange when there was chicken skin available). By half two I was back home with a cuppa.

We did 8 miles. It’s quite a nice little walk, actually and not as soggy as you might imagine. Here’s a map.