Captain's Log

Garsdale

The large carpark in Garsdale looked more like a lake than a place to park your vehicle. Or to be more precise, a patchwork of small tarns. This watery terrain was caused by enormous potholes that had filled with rain water. There were so many potholes that even the potholes had potholes. I parked as close to the carpark’s entrance as possible so that I didn’t have to test their depth.  The carpark was on the A684, a mile or so east of Sedburgh. It was an elevated position and we could see the town at the foot of the Howgill Fells. The grey clouds were scraping the tops of the highest fells.  These included the southern flank of East Baugh Fell over in the east. It felt like rain was in the air. 

Today’s walk was our last one for our week-long exploration of the Dales. The route would start with the ascent of Aye Gill Pike. According to the OS map, this looked like a gradual climb from the carpark. The descent looked gradual too and would eventually deliver us to the village of Cowgill in the Dentdale valley. We’d then pick up the Dales Way footpath and follow the River Dee to the quaint village of Dent. From there we’d have to traverse Aye Gill Pike’s western shoulder to get back to the mega-pothole carpark in Garsdale. It was going to be around 14 miles long and potentially a tough walk. We set off over trackless fell on our ascent to Aye Gill Pike. 

Aye Gill Pike

There were quite a few tracks on the fell, but none of them seemed definitive. Some looked like they’d been made by an ATV and others possibly by sheep. I knew I needed to be up near the forestry plantation that I could see on our left and so we made our way in that general direction. The fell was a little boggy, but manageable. There was a boggy track that ran alongside the plantation and we followed it trying to avoid the worst of the water. Stone walls segregated the fell into fields, but there was always a stile to provide safe passage to the next field. As we got higher, the ground became slightly less boggy. Even so, we often had to divert from the track in order to avoid exceedingly boggy sections. The western ridge up to the summit was broad and this prevented us seeing into the Garsdale valley to the north and the Dentdale valley to the south. It was quite a long trudge to the top, but eventually we reached the trig. There was a sheep’s horn near the trig that was bloody at one end. I wondered what tragedy had befell its owner. We took a summit photo and then set off on the descent.   

Just beyond the summit, we eventually got a good view along the Garsdale valley to the east. The weather looked a lot better over towards Hawes. We found the scars from what looked like old mining activity, not far from  the summit. It must have been one hell of a commute up here each day for the workers. The descent seemed just as prolonged as the ascent. Halfway along the ridge we looked back and saw a rain cloud following us down from the summit. We got our waterproofs on just in time. Our route continued eastwards along the ridge and to complete the symmetry of the summit traverse. we descended alongside a forestry plantation for a period. 

The OS map had shown a bridleway running over the hill’s shoulder between Garsdale and Dentdale. I’d hoped that this might be a good farm track, but it actually turned out to be a little used track that was just as boggy as Aye Gill Pike had been. We managed to find a dryish spot and sat down for a break. The Settle-Carlisle railway ran along the hillside a few hundred metres to the east. We could see the radio mast near Dent Station, the highest railway station in England. Further along the line we could see the impressive Arten Gill Viaduct and Dent Head Viaduct. A two carriage train emerged from Dent Station, heading towards Carlisle. I stood up and waved to it with both hands. I thought I might have got at least a nod from some of the passengers near the windows, but it looked as empty as a ghost train. Miserable sods! The track became steeper as we dropped down into the valley and soon enough we reached the distributed collection of houses known as Cowgill. 

The Dales Way

I’d completed the Dales Way a couple of years ago (see Dales Way) and so the route from here to Dent was familiar. Even so, it’s a convoluted route and I still had to refer to the map on one or two occasions. The path was a little overgrown in places and due to the rain, our passage along it was a moist experience at times. On my Dales Way Venture I’d passed through a few fields on this section containing plenty of cattle. I’d kept this knowledge quiet since I didn’t want to spook the Cabin Boy unnecessarily. It was pleasant enough walking, but due to vegetation and trees I felt that you never really seemed to get a good view of Dentdale. A footbridge took us across to the north side of the River Dee and we field-hopped our way on that side for a while. Soon enough though, we traversed back on to the south side again and headed across the field to the road. We crossed Deepdale Beck using a road bridge and then left the road to follow the river again. The Dales Way definitely meanders down the Dentdale valley. At last, Dent’s church and its surrounding buildings came into view. At Church Bridge, we left the Dales Way and headed into the village along the road. 

Dent

We sat on a bench to have our lunch. There was still rain in the air and it didn’t give the impression that it would improve. After lunch we went for a peruse around St Andrew’s church. The church originated in the 12th century, but was rebuilt in 1417, and restored in 1590 and 1787. It looked in pretty good nick to me. There was an impressive, large stained glass window filling its east side. There was also a memorial to the local lad Adam Sedgwick (see below) who died in 1863. 

We left the church and then the churchyard, reaching the cobbled street that snakes its way through Dent’s ancient buildings at its centre. On the corner of one of the buildings was a large pink granite stone. This was a memorial stone to Adam Sedgwick who was a Professor of Geology at Cambridge University and a founder of modern geology. Perhaps surprisingly, Sedgwick was an opponent to Darwin’s theory of evolution (Darwin was one of his geology students), although they remained friendly. He was rather conservative in his views and on one occasion described aspiring female students as ‘nasty forward minxes.’ I wondered what response I’d get if I called the Cabin Boy a ‘nasty forward minx’...probably not a response that I could document here. I thought about trying it later though. Sedgwick supported the abolition of slavery and so he can’t have been too stuffy.     

Walking along Dent’s cobbled high street was a little like stepping back in time. It was only when a car rumbled through that you realised you were still in the 21st century. We continued along the main street and eventually left its buildings behind. There was a small section of road walking before we picked up the Dales Way again, next to the River Dee. At Barth Bridge we crossed the river and prepared for our last climb of the day and our holiday, across the western shoulder of Aye Gill Head. 

Return

The sun made its long awaited appearance and so we took off our waterproofs. That was a good move since it felt like a steep climb up the hillside. The route  started off on tarmac, but soon changed to field hopping. We met three groups of Duke of Edinburghers with a spacing of about 10 minutes between each group. As the last group approached, the young girl at the front said to me:
‘You look cool!’ 
‘Thank you’ I replied.
After they were out of earshot, I turned around to the Kapitan, Cabin Boy and Ted to repeat the compliment that the young girl had paid me.
‘She probably meant that you look cold because you are wearing shorts and it's a cold day’ said the Kapitan.
‘Cool is going to mean something that’s definitely not good, to Gen Zs’’ added the Cabin Boy. ‘We  aren't back in your hippy days when cool meant something positive. She most likely meant you looked like an idiot.’ 
I considered using Sedgwick's  'forward nasty minx'  response, but decided to reserve it until a later date.
Ted wisely kept his head down and didn’t say anything. 

We left the field systems and entered the fells. We were back on Aye Gill Pike’s tufty boggy grass again. There wasn’t a footpath marked on the OS map back to the carpark and there wasn’t one in reality either. There were what looked like ATV tracks and sheep trails and we made use of some of them to progress northwards towards the carpark. We had a good view of the Howgills on our descent. The clouds that had covered their summits this morning had now risen so that the whole range was visible. Eventually the potholed carpark came into view and we made our way down to it.   

It had been an excellent walk to complete our week in the Dales. he weather could have been kinder, but it was more showers than soaking. It had been nice to revisit the Dales Way along Dentdale and pay homage to Adam Sedgwick’s boulder again. I’ve still not tried calling the Cabin Boy a ‘nasty forward minx’...I’m just waiting for the right occasion.