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Well worth the 1,000ft ascent

settle

This shot is looking back at yesterday’s location – Giggleswick Scar is middle right looking down on Settle – and was taken from Hunter Bark this morning just before heavy clouds moved in.  Hunter Bark is the name of the highest point on the ancient track over the hills between Long Preston and Settle in Ribblesdale. If you start from Long Preston railway station you’ll climb a steady 1,000 feet to the trig point on Hunter Bark where you’ll be rewarded with a superb 360 degree view of the region. On the ascent from the village you’ll also see the mazy path the meandering River Ribble makes as it snakes down the dale, as well as the hazy mass of Pendle Hill dominating the distant horizon.

Views worth the embarrassment

giggleswick scar

The Yorkshire uplands were certainly no place to be baht ‘at today.  I squeezed in an hour on the limestone above Giggleswick Scar after lunch. By gum it weren’t half nithering but the views over Settle and down Ribblesdale were splendid. Managed to slide on my backside through freshly deposited cow muck… and had to drive home baht trousers.

Happy with my hippy theory on the Ribble

ribble_start

I have this sort of hippy style belief that rivers don’t have a start and finish but are just a continuous flow of water in a cycle involving clouds-land-sea-clouds. I was asked the other day where the River Ribble starts – having given my hippy theory and receiving a blank look in return, I went through the stock answers. But I do wonder why humans feel the need to have a beginning and an end to everything? We must have a measurement too – how long, how high, how deep, how wide… etc; we’re always trying to portray something that’s natural in terms of a man-made unit. Perhaps it’s just another of our attempts to feel in control of the natural world. Instead of calculating it we should just embrace Nature, like a true landscape artist would. I told my friend that there is a difference between the ‘source’ and the ‘start’ of a river. The Ribble’s source is mainly the watershed of Cam Fell and surrounding fells. Water trickles down the fells forming Cam Beck, Gayle Beck and lots of smaller tributaries which join to form the Ribble near Selside, at the place shown in my photo – a rather boring ‘start’ for this mighty river on its 75-mile voyage to the Irish Sea don’t you think? I prefer my hippy idea.
I also caught some lovely autumn light and a cloudless sky above Penyghent on my way back down Ribblesdale today.

penyghent

When the Dales are a tonic

sky

After a few days working solidly on the next Countryman magazine I thought it was time to take a break and get out for a breath of air – and even though I only walked around the village this afternoon, I’m glad I did. The churchyard was beautifully carpeted in gold and brown, the beck full and lively, and the sky offered plenty of drama as can be seen in my photograph. Now I feel invigorated and ready for more work – bring it on!

Make the most of Dales colours

langcliffe

The trees by the Ribble beneath Langcliffe Scar looked great in the morning sun today. Must make the most of the autumn colours as I think they’ll be gone shortly.

Motivated Yorkshire folk in their seventies

attermire

Lying in bed this morning sipping my life-inducing pot of Yorkshire Tea I got to thinking about motivation. Some folk struggle to raise the briefest enthusiasm for work of any kind yet others, often into their 70s and beyond, continue forwards with drive and energy. In my head I began to list well known Yorkshire people who stride on despite many of them not needing just to bolster their bank balances. Springing to mind were artists like David Hockney and Ashley Jackson; poet Tony Harrison;  Alan Bennett; actors such as Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart; my friend and author Bill Mitchell… the list goes on. All are well over bus-pass age yet continue tirelessly to produce work at the top of their particular tree. I admire such dedication – and all those other lesser-known elderly Yorkshire men and women going about more mundane daily jobs without much recognition. Lacking such volume of enthusiasm today I laid in bed for another hour before a short walk up above Ribblesdale where a brief shaft of light illuminated Attermire Scar for this photo. I think that if I should be lucky enough to reach my 70s I’ll be content with continuing to selfishly enjoy the Yorkshire Dales.

A touch of frost and a load of bull in the dales

littondale1

The seven-mile drive from Stainforth in Ribblesdale to Halton Gill in Littondale was a delight this morning. There was just a touch of frost remaining in Silverdale (through which the road runs) as the sun began to peek over the top of Fountains Fell and light up the eastern flank of Penyghent. The picture is taken from just above Halton Gill looking down Littondale towards Arncliffe. I hope you realise I risked my life just to bring you this photo –  there was an enormous bull beside the road where I pulled in. Luckily, I think his main interest was in eating to regain his strength after having a ‘busy’ night on the moor.

A reminder of our Norse past in the Dales

scaleber2

Scaleber Foss is a lovely location a mile or so above Settle in Ribblesdale on the road to Kirkby Malham. I got caught in a brief hailstorm while there this morning but managed a couple of photos before the soaking. Now, as I look out of my window while typing this blog, fluffy clouds are moving quickly across a pretty blue sky above Scaleber – such is life in the dales. Scaleber Wood is a Woodland Trust property and provides some good walking as well as the series of waterfalls. Foss is an old Norse word for fall and it is said that many Yorkshire words developed from the settling of Scandinavians in the county. I recently discovered that my Y-chromosone male line stems from the oldest tribe to have inhabited Europe (uninspiringly called Haplotype I, mutation M253). They lived in Scandinavia from before the Ice Age, then after the glaciers retreated 15,000 years ago began to spread to the British Isles and elsewhere. So perhaps it was one of my ancestors who brought with him endearing terms such as ‘sithee, eyup and what’s tha laikin at?’.

County confusion? Not 'ere lad.

paythorne

According to the Guardian, Yorkshire is ‘actually four counties’. I almost spat out my tea before I realised that I’d actually paid for it therefore it shouldn’t be wasted. So I flung my flat cap at the ferret instead. Calm down, I thought… if someone was to ask me anything about Middlesex what would I answer (is it a London suburb?). Yesterday I watched a swollen river Ribble flowing under the smart bridge at Paythorne (picture). This tiny village is in Yorkshire despite the fact a shabby sign nearby proclaims the area as being part of Lancashire. Recent winds have seen that sign take on a bit of a jaunty angle… poor workmanship – allowing Lancastrians to temporarily take care of this part of Yorkshire was obviously a big mistake.

Trees offer a breath of fresh Airedale

No doubt after the latest storms have passed there will be little left of the autumnal colours to enjoy. So I am pleased that a few days ago I journeyed to Leeds by rail – why? Because if you take the train between Skipton and Leeds and stare at the Aire Valley instead of at your iPhone or some other already-out-of-date device, you’ll see that despite its industrial history Airedale is in fact blessed with a great deal of woodland. All along the route up to within a mile or two of the city trees cover the valley sides. And I hear that just a couple of weeks ago Yorkshire Water, along with the Forestry Commission and Natural England, began a £1m project to restore more ancient woodland near Esholt – nice one. Not only are trees vital to the environment they provide a great deal of pleasure, and I’ve enjoyed many a grand walk along the Leeds-Liverpool canal which snakes through the Aire Valley woodland. I took these pictures by the canal near Kildwick in summer – it’ll be a while before we see such greenery again.

canal2 canal1

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