Station to Station – Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale

One of the projects I decided to do this summer is to walk from Settle to Carlisle in day walks using the Settle to Carlisle railway.
And so it was that I arrived for the 10:56 train from Horton to Settle in time for the 09:56 train, due to some kind of slippage in the time-space continuum. It just so happens that there isn’t a train at 09:56 and neither was there one at 10:56 – it arrived a quarter of an hour late due to “signals”.

Luckily, Bruno was entertained by a young lad of about five or six or something who’d been wild camping with his Grandad. They also turned up an hour early due to the same gravity/time/space/British Summer Time Misunderstanding Accident.  Anyway the lad donated some of the scoff from his rucksack to Bruno’s “Save the Dawg from creeping malnutrition fund” and found some sticks for Bruno to chase and turn into tiny little sticks.

Eventually, we set off from Settle. I pretty much made up the route as I went along and it turned out to be fairly interesting.
First of all, we visited Attermire Scars – which looks like the Holy Land of your childhood but without the donkeys, roman soldiers and the people in their pyjamas with tea-towels on their heads.  Very nice and whitish and craggy.

Next, we visited Victoria Cave, with it’s long history of pre-ice age hyenas, post-ice age bears, romano-british workers in a workshop and modern foxes and badgers. And the ramblers scoffing their lunch just outside. I had a brief poke around inside. It was dark.

Then, a little further along, there was Jubilee Cave(s). This is a good place to insert children because they will pop up somewhere else from various hidden exits. There’s nothing much inside that would cause damage, apart from the roof which could take off an unguarded scalp.  I had another look inside and it was dark in there too, but with bits of daylight from various hidden exits.

Then there was the Winskill nature reserve and it’s erotic boulders. I took a picture. It includes the dog. Its rock from somewhere else, y’see…. glaciers did it.  There’s loads of them.

 

After this, we had a look at Catrigg Force – a rather beautiful double waterfall in a deep gorge. I once had a swim there in a summer thunderstorm; an odd experience. No swimming today as the water temperature was probably not much more than half a dozen centigrades, which is a contra-indication to enjoyment and , it has to be said, survival.

We went to Stainforth and then followed the Ribble Way towards Penyghent, which beckoned unconvincingly (as it looked quite big….)
So, rejecting the advances of Penyghent , we cut down to Dub Cote and Horton.

Note that the car park at Horton charges and gets very full very early, specially on summer Sundays. The station car park on the other hand, is small but free for travellers and was empty today, apart from the knipemobile. You have to brave the “no entry, no parking, just bugger off” signs from the residents of local houses, but I had no problem, apart from a “funny look”
Stage two coming soon.
Today was 10 miles and 2300 feet of ascent. It would be possible (I almost said “easy”, to include Penyghent.) My knees had had enough, though.

Mallerstang on Superdog Beef and Gravy

This is another of the Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops walks and also another walk using the Settle-Carlisle Line to enable a linear walk to take place.

Its also the first walk where Superdawg was fuelled by Superdog doggie scran – If you have a dog and you’re interested in dog food see this link http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/shop/supadog.html

You can also look at the link if you don’t have a dog but still hold an interest in dog food, although that might strike some people as a bit odd. still, each to their own, eh? In order to get a bag of the dog food (its a huge bag by the way) I had to promise to review it, which I will do in due course and with due honesty. I have to say that even though Bruno is not noted for his delicate feeding habits or any kind of discernment at all, his first reaction to this scoff was to raid the bin in which we’ve hidden it. So its a good start as far as he’s concerned.

But on with the walk. We caught the 9:48 train from Kirkby Stephen to Garsdale for the princely sum of £3.20. The journey was too quick for a trolley coffee although it did smell nice…. anyway, we got off at Garsdale and made our way via a rather good path over drumlins to railway cottages at South Lunds and then by a tussocky path up to the ruins of High Dyke. This lies on the High Way track – an ancient route and was once, I believe, a tavern or an Inn for drovers and packmen. Its a ruin now and won’t be long before its just a pile of stones. It’s mullioned windows testify to its age.

We continued upwards on a footpath till it was time to turn North to bag our first hill – Sails at 667 metres. Normally, this hill is a right boggy mess, but just now the hills are parched and dry if a bit bouncy in places.

A bog trot and a bit of fence following lead to Hugh Seat 689 metres and more , similar stuff went on to Archy Styrigg 695metres and High Seat 709 metres. The ridge is the Cumbria/North Yorkshire County boundary and is marked by a variety of tall, small, fat and thin cairns, sticks and small shelters. The walking gradually gets easier and drier as progress Northwards is made. It is, in fact, a romp. And the views are BIIIIIG. This is no place for an attack of agrophobia.

The ridge ends suddenly at Fells End (oddly enough….) and we headed off North- Westwards to descend by a wide and grassy ridge and then through fields to Nateby where the pub was shut. (dhuhhh). More field paths lead back to the station where the knipemobile was still parked…..

I passed an old WW2 pill box on the way. Inside (which stinks of sheep pee by the way), it becomes obvious that the placing of this defence is a bit clever. It seems there were six mountings for armaments and these would cover the railway station, the main road from Tebay, Kirkby Stephen and the road South to Wensleydale – a complete circle, in fact. Its a shame to see it falling to bits. It needs some TLC, after all it is an historic building.

Altogether this walk is 14.7 miles with 2200 feet of climbing. Its a fab walk, specially when its not soaked. The walking is generally pretty easy going although navigation might be tricky in some places.

Great Knoutberry Station to Station

First of all, here’s a health warning, or, I should say, a tissue warning. This blog contains material which some people might find upsetting. Have some tissues ready.

Message to the vulnerable - You know who you are. Be sensible. Don’t read the last section of this blog post if your mum is about to arrive, or you have an important job interview in the next hour or so. You don’t want to arrive looking like you’ve just been blubbering. Here’s a clue: see that dog in the pic above. Its about that dog. Its quite sad.

I did tell you!

Anyway, this is another post in the series containing fascinating details about how to climb the Yorkshire dales 2000 foot tops. Its also uses the Settle-Carlisle railway line to make a linear walk instead of a circular one, or one that looks like a vegetable …. I thought that using the train was such a good idea, I might well do some more Station to Station walks on the Settle to Carlisle line.

So, after negotiating a scarily white-coloured A66, we finally slithered into the car park at Garsdale station, where we mooched about for a bit looking at the statue of a dog (Did I mention how upsetting this is by the way?)

The signalman cam out of his signal box and signalled to me. “The train’s on time” he says. We have a conversation across the tracks. He discovers my plan to get the train to Dent and walk back again. “Nice” he says…”And you’ll probably be getting off before the conductor has managed to collect your fare….”

The train comes. I get on. I pay the conductor. He gives me a ticket. Bruno doesn’t like it. The train stops. I get off. I am at Dent Station.

My dad once had a ticket for Dent station from Chatham. Around 1944ish he had a 24 hour pass from the Royal navy and got the train to Skipton, using his ticket for Dent. This was a scam to avoid buying train tickets. I’m not certain how the scam worked. Unfortunately, he fell asleep somewhere South of Leeds and woke up in Ribblesdale, being dumped on Dent station late at night. He caught the milk train back in the morning, but his leave was at an end, so he went on to Chatham. With a new ticket.

Luckily, I managed to stay awake for the five minute journey.

We got off and walked up the road towards Garsdale, turning off on a drifted-over bridleway with expansive views from Penyghent to Scafell Pike. This bridleway is worth walking on if you do nothing else. Its brill, man….

After a while, the sun got stronger and my beard froze, so I was hot and cold all at the same time. We turned off the track and climbed up to the summit of Great Knoutberry – using our new skills of following the hard snow next to the wall and ignoring the peat hags and tussocks. At the top, a chap from Lincolnshire was having his lunch. We discussed tents and sleeping bags and the degree to which our respective offspring liked hillwalking, or not.

I continued by following the wall which forms the Yorkshire/Cumbria County boundary. This passes dangerously over the fiercely frozen Widdale fell tarn.

I was going to follow the boundary for quite a long way, but it dawned on me that it was leading me away from my parked car and not towards it, so, I turned left and did the follow-a-patch-of-snow thing across a couple of miles of peaty haggy moory stuff back to the road to Garsdale, which was under several feet of snow at this point.

This road, incidentally is know as the Coal road. The reason may seem obvious until you consider that it links two railway stations together. What’s the point of taking the coal off the train and carrying it over the fell and putting it back on a train again – I wondered. Then I thought that maybe the pits around the sides of the road were actually coal mines. Ah yes, that’s it.

Its also called “Galloway gate” or the “Galloway Road” This is perhaps just a bit older than the Coal road name and refers to Galloway cattle which were driven on high level routes from Scotland to the meat-hungry industrial Lancashire and Yorkshire. It was, in fact, turning the protein of the protein-rich North into silver and thus into carbohydrates (ie bread)

We arrived in due course back at the car.

We did 8 miles and 1250 feet of uphill. The snow is still very hard. Its not too late to go and walk on it. Do it now. Gwan… do it now.

And now.

A space.

Compose yourselves.

About this dog…..

The dog is, or, I should say, was, called “Ruswarp” This, apparently, is pronounced “Russup”

Ruswarp belonged to a chap called Graham Nuttall. Graham and Ruswarp were instrumental in keeping the Settle-Carlisle railway line open. Indeed, Ruswarp’s paw print appears on the petition. He was a familiar attender at meetings. the campaign was successful.

Shortly after the line was saved, Graham and Ruswarp went hillwalking in Wales. Graham disappeared in the Welsh hills on 20th January 1990. His body was found on 7 April 1990, some eleven winter weeks later and Ruswarp was still in attendance. He was in a bad shape, though and lived just long enough to witness Graham’s funeral. He was a quiet dog, but when the coffin passed through the crematorium curtains, it’s said that he let out a baleful howl.

Hot sweet tea and a fag, I think…..

But what of Great Knoutberry? – Easy peasy, a bit rough in parts. Cracking views, though. It doesn’t really lend itself to long walks, somehow. The train line is very useful and adds interest.

Sniff… I’m still thinking about that dog……