Yokenthwaite Moor

Due to an episode of pre-breakfast lassitude, I didn’t arrive at the Semer Water car park till lunchtime. I paid the two quid parking fee to Mrs Metcalfe at Low Blean Farm and me and superdawg romped off up the road for the bagging of Yokenthwaite Moor. This hill is also known as Middle Tongue and is another of the Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops walks. (getting close to the end of this by the way…)

We followed the byway towards Cray. This could well be a roman road. If it isn’t it doesn’t really matter. The point is, it gets you up high quickly and easily.

We turned off on the high limestone plateau and followed a wall for a bit. And then a fence. I was kind of hoping for some really duff weather – it was forecast. But it was just a bit cold and there was some spots of rain/sleet in the wind. We could see our breath and that was about as bad as it got.

Once off the limestone, though, the going was rough and peaty. On a wet day, this could be quite bad. As it was, it hasn’t really rained much up here since the snow melted , so the bogs are dried up and only occasionally a bit squishy. But its still rough. Rough? Don’ talk to me about rough…. this is the roughest 2000 foot top in Yorkshire.

After the trig point, the way turns sharp left, at which point it gets much easier. There are animal traps. Some contain dead animals. A larsen trap – meant to catch crows had , apparently, trapped a sheep. There was just a sad skeleton.

Navigation along this ridge is pretty easy. You just follow the fence, which at some points is a wall. The trick is to follow it in the correct direction. At one point, where there’s the only gate on the ridge, this is counter-intuitive. Turn Left. Honestly – turn left and just keep following the wall.

After the peculiar limestone corrie of Jeffrey Pot, we made a beeline for a place where Baydale beck and the footpath to Marsett meet. This went well despite not using a compass ( I used a wrinkle on the hill above Marsett which I’d spotted and headed for that)

Alongside the beck, spring was springing (and about time too…) There were primroses and violets and various daisy-related flowers – and blackthorn blossoming sweetly.

A bit of road walking and a lambing field and we were back at the start.

There’s nothing really complex about this walk. Its a boggy slog. But there are curlews and larks and the usual moorland stuff to entertain. The views aren’t remarkable, really, to be honest….. But there’s a lot of space and much hopping between heathery tussocks. After wet weather, there may be drownings…..

Me and the dog did about 14 miles and 1700 feet of up.

Yokenthwaite Moor, be warned, is a rough bugger. Expect hard work and soppy socks.

Drumaldrace from Virosidum

This is yetanother walk in the Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops series – and about time, too after a long interval caused primarily by deep snow.

The snow was still around when I met the bro in Bainbridge, just by the village green. Our route was designed, or , at least, intended to be as easy as possible in view of the increasing speed of the thaw which was happening (car thermometer showing a sub-tropical 3.5 degrees C) (wow).

On the roman road from Bainbridge

And so we all trotted off to find the start of the roman road which has run in the general direction of Ingleton in a straightish roman-road kind of way for the last 1936 years.

As we gained height slowly over melting ice, we started coming across deep snowdrifts until, at last, the lane was full to the top.

Road filled with snowdrifts

On the positive side, this snow is now much firmer than it has been and, mainly held the weight of a fully developed ex-personnel manager and his rucksack full of tasty things. Every now and then, though, it wouldn’t. And the drifts were arranged in a series of steep, frozen waves which eventually started to require quite a lot of effort.

More @$8*!! snow

As soon as we could, we left the lane for the slightly less deep snow on the moor and after bashing our way through tussocks and snowdrifts, we arrived at the summit cairn, where we stayed for almost a full minute.

Nearing the summit cairn of Drumaldrace

We returned to the monster drifts on the road and followed this for another half a km or so, and then hurtled off downhill to join the footpath to Marsett. This proved even more like hard work since the snow let us through into hidden and swollen streams and we had to cross a couple of in-spate becks as well.

Bruno, as usual, enjoyed the snow enthusiastically and spent most of the day bouncing around, digging snow and jumping for snowballs. By the time we got to Semer Water he was looking a but fragged, to be honest and was all for dozing off. Not as young as he used to be! He’s fast asleep just now as it happens and will only have a short dreamy snoozy-time intermission till food time. Its a hard life but somebody has to do it, I suppose.

Semer Water

But as we lost altitude, the going eventually eased and we arrived at Marsett ruffled and wet but strong enough for a second lunch by the lake – which was partially frozen.

A path back to Bainbridge was abandoned due to mucky bogginess and we escaped to the tarmac to the East and were soon back in Bainbridge.

Has this rock got a face in it?

In better, more summery weather, there are fine alternative routes on the East side of Semer Water.

12 miles (with the effort of about 18) and 1900 feet of lurching upwards.

Virosidum, the probable name of the small roman fort at Bainbridge, we thought, meant the fort of the chap called Sid. But, apparently, this may be incorrect. One source says that it could be named after the nearby River Ure and another says it means the Fort of the True Men – these true men, in this case being the 6th Cohort of the Nervians. This particular unit was famed throughout Britannia for chewed fingernails and hearing noises outside the fort late at night, and with good cause as the local Brigantes were a rough lot until they turned their hand to the production of Wensleydale cheese, a delicacy untouched by the local garrison in case it was poisoned or something.

Its a relief to finally do a proper walk. The neve should be really really good and solid after the next freeze-up. Its getting there slowly.