Captain's Log

The Fog

Wensleydale was filled with mist as we made our way to Aysgarth. The weather forecast predicted sunshine until late afternoon, when rain would make an unwelcome appearance. I hoped that the sun would soon burn the mist away. I reckoned that we might even get a decent cloud inversion if we reached the higher ground quickly.    

Today’s walk would take us from the honey pot of Aysgarth on a field-hop to the village of Carperby. Peatmoor Lane would be our route to the higher moors to the north. A mixture of Landrover tracks and some trackless moor wandering would take us east to Black Hill. From there we would descend to the very impressive Bolton Castle. More field-hopping would then deliver us back to Aysgarth where we’d hopefully benefit from the heavy recent rain, by taking a gander at its Lower and Middle waterfalls. 

Carperby

The Cabin Boy had forgotten to bring Ted. Again! No doubt we’d return to our digs in the evening to find him snoozing on the sofa with half a dozen empty bottles of Old Peculiar next to him. After a brief tramp through woodland we reached the field-hop to Carperby. The sun tried hard to break through the mist, but the veil remained persistent. The Cabin Boy gave her Curlew cry as a couple of cows appeared out of the mist and then disappeared just as quickly. It was only when we were a quarter of a mile from Carperby that we reached the mist’s ragged edge. The sun finally broke through and blue skies became our ceiling. Looking westwards we could see an interesting cloud formation that looked convincingly like a hill covered in snow. Carperby was still asleep when we arrived. We inspected a sign on the Wheatsheaf Pub that claimed James Herriot had his honeymoon here in 1941. I suppose it was during a dark period of the Second World War II and so a week in Paris was off the table. Even so, it sounded like James wanted a working holiday to me. His wife must have realised where she came in the pecking order of job and relationship. A man on a mobility scooter rolled on our coattails as we headed out of the village. He was walking his dog, or rather he wasn’t, if you get my meaning. 

Moors

Peatmoor Lane offered a gradual climb up onto the moors. As we gained height we looked southwards to see that the valley still held the mist. It wasn’t the best cloud inversion I’ve ever seen, but it was still pretty. At Ponderledge Scar we came across a pole and fire beacon. Presumably, there must have been another couple of these in sight from here, but Wensleydale was so big that it was anybody’s guess as to their location.   

Near to Wegber Scar, we left the fields behind and entered the moorland. It did seem more like a battle zone though with all the bunkers, Landrover tracks and huts used by the Tweed Trouser Brigade. We came across an Estate vehicle abandoned in the middle of the track. I looked around to see if I could see the driver, but he must have been well camouflaged. The track continued its gradual ascent to Greenhaw Hut, a small stone shooting hut. Its prominent location on the top of a hill meant that it was visible for much of the time that we walked across the moors.    

The moorland around here was vast and fairly flat. Apart from intermittent bangs from the Tweed Trouser Brigade and the gurgling Grouse, the evidence of life seemed lacking. Our Landrover track dropped temporarily to cross Beldon Beck. A Grouse posed for photographs on a gatepost. The Landrover track turned 90 degrees to the north and so we left it and joined a wire fence that would be our handrail for the next section. The OS map indicated that there might have been a track alongside the fence, but I think it was probably just added by a bored cartographer. There was a bit of fern-wading and heather-wading to progress, but it wasn’t too difficult. Some of the heather had even been burnt and so there were the occasional ‘empty’ patches. At Bobascar Rake we joined a Landrover Track for the rest of the route eastwards. This provided good views to Redmire Scar and the old mine workings on the moor. An old chimney was clearly visible.   

Black Hill seemed hardly a hill, but it was labelled as such on the OS map and it was our turning point to head southwards into the valley.  

Bolton Park Lead Mine

It was the eagle eyes of the Kapitan that spotted an information board over to our right. We wandered over and found that it offered details of the nearby derelict Bolton Park Lead Mine. Around 1400 tons of lead were produced here between 1856 and 1872. The mine closed in 1871 and much of the machinery was taken to be used in Arkengarthdale. Even so, a 100 yard tramp to the west revealed the derelict remains of the old site. The small stone house for the manager was still very much intact. It was interesting to walk around the site and read the information boards. One of the boards described how the workers would sit down to have their ‘bait’ (i.e. lunch). The last time I’d read that term was at a ‘miner’ sculpture near the Boulby mine (see Plugging The Staithes Boulby Gap). I thought it was just a north eastern slang word, but obviously it was used further west too. 

We sat down on some rocks to have our bait and watched a mass of grim looking clouds drift up the valley from the east. It looked like the weather forecasters had got the timing wrong and the bad weather was arriving earlier. We finished our bait and continued our journey downwards into the valley. 

Castle Bolton

Castle Bolton was a one-street village, but it was some street since it had a 14th century castle standing proudly at one end. It seemed more intact and impressive than I was expecting. The castle is famous for being Mary, Queen of Scots’ prison for six months. Given the choice of the Tower of London or Bolton Castle, I would definitely have chosen the latter given its amazing view over the Wensleydale Valley. The castle was closed from November to February and so we could only look up at its tall walls and press our noses against its windows. The 14th century St Oswald’s church was open and just next door to the castle. We’d just felt the first spots of rain though and so we decided to push on with the walk. 

Aysgarth

We started the field-hop back to Aysgarth and halfway there we were forced to put on our wet weather gear. Grey clouds had dropped and the route of this morning’s walk across the moorlands had now disappeared into the gloom. The short section of road walking near Wheeling Bridge needed a bit of care since there wasn’t much of a verge and the road was relatively busy. Due to the numerous fields and lack of views the walk did lose a little interest on this section. It wasn’t long though before we reached the woodland on the north side of Aysgarth Falls. We took the opportunity to make the short detours to see the Lower and Middle waterfalls. I was really glad that we took the trouble since they were mightily impressive given the recent rain and the large amount of water that was rumbling down the river. Somebody had also trimmed down the vegetation that had hindered the view of Middle Force on our last visit. They were certainly spectacular. We continued our journey through the woodland and returned to the carpark.   

It had been an enjoyable walk offering great views along the Wensleydale Valley. Bolton Castle was more impressive than I’d imagined and visiting Bolton Park Mines was a bonus. The Aysgarth waterfalls were glorious after all the rain. Maybe the section of flat moorland, Landrover tracks, and heather wading wouldn’t be to everybody’s taste, but personally I prefer that to field-hopping. All we had to now was to return to our digs and see if Ted had started on the Prosecco yet.