Wainman's Pinnacle & Lund's Tower 16th August 2007

Getting out on walks has been difficult this year with the terrible weather, so on this occasion it was nice to grab an available window and beat the rain for once.
This was an evening walk starting from the Dog & Gun pub at Glusburn near Skipton, Yorkshire. Walking in the evening this summer has suffered not only from the rain but the accompanying thick cloud which can effectively steal up to an hour of useable light from the end of the day. During the excellent meal at the pub the heavens opened and rain lashed the windows, the rugged hills disappearing in the murk. We had hoped to be under way by 7.30pm but here the unpredictability of events came to the rescue. Neil's later than hoped for arrival meant it was closer to 8pm as we put our boots on...and the rain stopped. The sky cleared, and we were on!

Lund's Tower from the Dog & Gun

Wainman's Pinnacle from Crag End

After an easy start along farm tracks the paths soon became indistinct and it soon became very heavy underfoot on the spongy, thick turf. Eventually we reached Wainman's Pinnacle, raised in 1815 to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Wealthy Yorkshiremen in this era seemed to have something of a fetish for building obelisks on hill tops - Stoodley Pike, a similar (but much larger) monument to the south of here was also built around the same time, to commemorate the same event.

The view from Wainman's Pinnacle

From here it was an easy walk along a ridge to the other folly occupying this hill top - Lund's Tower, built in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. By now it was nearly 9pm and even with a fairly clear sky the light was failing badly. We descended the steep path back towards the Dog & Gun, darkness falling even faster in the valley's shadow.

Lund's Tower

Head torches were required for the rest of the journey but the paths were mostly along tracks allowing a more expeditious return. As the lights of the pub grew near the occasional heavy droplet of water began to hit us, increasing in frequency as we reached the car park. It soon turned into a full downpour but too late - we were already inside enjoying a pint of Timothy Taylor's Ram Tam. Four miles, one hour forty minutes - and we had won.

Video:

Middleham

This remarkable little town lies in lower Wensleydale. It is only two miles from Leyburn, but feels completely isolated, as if it were in a world of its own. The main attraction is its 12th Century castle, once home to Richard III, who according to Shakespeare's play pledged his kingdom for a horse. Ironically, the area around Middleham is now known for its stables and racehorse training.
Lying just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park, this would make an excellent base for a walking weekend and is a nice, quiet alternative to the bustle of Leyburn.



The view south from the castle, towards Braithwaite Moor and the Yorkshire Dales National Park

Market Place

Linda Thompson's statue of Richard III

Inside Middleham Castle

Video:

“Witches cast their spell over many a sleepy hamlet…”

So said the narrator of “The Cleveland Way”, a Public Information Film produced by the Central Office Of Information (COI) in the 1970s and shown frequently, usually in the afternoons between programmes on (I think) BBC1 throughout that decade. This marvellously evocative one minute thirty second masterpiece with a haunting flute-solo soundtrack made a big impression on me in pre-school years (even though I didn’t know exactly what the film was about being so young), certainly the idea, reinforced by the film's earnest documentary style, of witches being real (they must be – one had left her broomstick on the wall) scared me quite a bit!


No date is mentioned for the year of production but the Cleveland Way opened in 1969 and the North Riding Of Yorkshire, mentioned in the film, was abolished in 1974 as part of local government reorganisation. The announcement of this had been made as early as 1972 so it is unlikely the COI would have mentioned the old county after this date, so this (and the hippie-ish young couple featured towards the end) would point to around 1970-1971. Initially referred to by some as the "Acorn Route", this symbol would be subsequently used for all National Trails in England and Wales (The Cleveland Way was the second; the first, The Pennine Way, opened in 1965)
One thing that particularly strikes about this film is the walking gear - canvas rucksacks, pointy wool hats, corduroys tucked into thick woollen socks. No technical base layers back then. It's all somewhat reminiscent of those school trips to the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District back in the late 1970s/early 1980s.


Another similarly evocative Public Information Film from the same era was one about the Yorkshire Dales National Park, narrated by Frank Windsor of "Z-Cars" fame. This has yet to turn up on any compilations such as the "Charley Says" series but I live in hope. An interesting film that has appeared (on "Charley Says 2") is one promoting The Ridgeway path. I don't remember seeing this as a child, so it is likely the broadcast of these items was regionally targetted; doubtless those promoting trails/National Parks in The North were not broadcast in The South and vice versa.

The opening frames of "The Cleveland Way" - Whitestone Crag across Gormire Lake. Watch the whole film here:

Sparing no expense, I recently had the opportunity to walk part of The Cleveland Way. As luck would have it most of the sights featured in the Public Information Film are in the first ten miles of the trail, so it was possible to see many of them as they are today - as well as some of the spectacular views the film omits.
Click below to view:



Sadly we didn't have the sun-drenched landscape the 1970s camera crew had (I wonder how long they had to wait for a decent day?) but as you can see-now, as then - "Little has changed.."


"Look for this sign, to make sure you're on the right track."

Rye Loaf Hill From Settle (31st January 2005)

A 7-mile walk from Wainwright's "Walks In Limestone Country" (reviewed below). Done (just) pre-CROW coming into force in the Dales we were technically trespassing , though an ancient empty Kestrel lager can (Do they still make that?) at the summit cairn suggested people did occasionally climb it pre-open access.


The initial part of the route out from Settle is very steep, but the walk levels out after this and there is little climb of any note after this, save the last part from the Malham footpath to the summit.
Warrendale Knotts

The view of Settle and beyond from the top of the first climb is superb, but on this occasion we were in low cloud and visibility was practically nil, though the limestone formations looming eerily through the murk made up for this.

Attermire Scar

The mist soon cleared and we had a view of the 1,794 ft summit for the last mile and a half of the approach.

Rye Loaf Hill

At the summit cairn. There are excellent views from here, including Pendle Hill and Bowland to the south.

Scaleber Force, on the return journey.

"Scaleber (pronounced Scallyber) Force was formerly known as Scaleberg Foss. On a signpost in Settle it is wrongly named Scalebar Fall." Still there!

Settle from High Hill Lane.

Whilst returning from the summit we attempted a short cut across a field at Scaleber Pasture. Figuring that nobody would spot two specks on a distant landscape, we were then somewhat dismayed by the woolly "Escort" we got all the way across - I felt like a cross between St Francis Of Assisi and Brian "The Messiah" in "Monty Python's Life Of Brian"! This and the rest of the walk in the video...

Book Review: Walks In Limestone Country (1970) By Alfred Wainwright

This year marks the centenary of Alfred Wainwright, author of the famous Lakeland Fells guides. The media has been full of programmes and articles about Wainwright and his love of Lakeland, but rather less has been said of his books outside that area. A Pennine Way Companion, published in 1969 was the first, but with Walks In Limestone Country he returns to the more area-specific format. Or rather, he doesn’t. It is, as the title suggests, just that – a collection of walks in the south-western Yorkshire Dales, rather than a comprehensive guide to a particular area in the style of his earlier books. Not all the limestone areas are covered – the imposing and unique areas to the east around Grassington are ignored, as indeed are two Lakeland-sized peaks (Great Whernside and Buckden Pike) north of there. The book is subtitled The Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-Y-Ghent areas of Yorkshire but Malham, well to the east, is included. The somewhat skeletal nature of coverage is highlighted even more by the sketch map on the back cover. It is hard not to conclude that this is a book made up from completed parts of a more comprehensive Yorkshire Dales project that Wainwright tired of and then abandoned, later modifying it to a list of walks (and possibly rushed out to meet a publishing deadline - perhaps unlikely given his notoriously stubborn nature but you never know). It is worth noting that Wainwright remarried in 1970 (after an acrimonious and protracted divorce) so his mind understandably may well have been elsewhere around this time.
The walks themselves though are as superb and well-documented as you would expect from the man. One or two areas (Ingleborough in particular) get a very detailed Lakeland Fells-style treatment (again hinting at a more ambitious original book), and some less obvious but very worthwhile walks are included as well. Highly recommended.

Peak District Erosion

Things are getting quite bad in Britain's oldest National Park - off-roading by 4x4s and trail bikes are badly eroding tracks to the point they are becoming impassable. If anybody doubts this take a look at the photos below, taken in February on Chapel Gate, just south of Barber Booth:



A quagmire even on a dry, cold day with frost in the shadows such as this.


A formerly asphalted surface worn through to a depth of three feet.

<

The Peak District National Park Authority promises action - well, sort of, if you read this :


"Its guiding principle is that the best means to alleviate the problems is through a co-operative approach, involving all recreational users, landowners, community groups, highways authorities and the police, treating each route individually on a case-by-case basis." This is QUANGO-speak for not a lot, and not very quickly.
I must confess that when it comes to 4x4s I'm closer to Jeremy Clarkson than Ken Livingstone, and the countryside is certainly a more appropriate place for them than the school run in Fulham, but such is the level of damage here that it is difficult to see how anything other than severe restrictions (and a great deal of expensive repair work)can be effective.


The inevitable happened when one driver tried to use the track on our visit - grounding himself halfway up below Lord's Seat, eventually getting free after a quarter of an hour. The trail bikes which followed had fewer problems, though this was because they rode off the side of the track, thus furthering the erosion.


Things were little better on Rushup Edge at the top of the track; a deep pit worn by heavy vehicle use had flooded, creating a potential sticking point...


...which is then avoided by driving around it. And so the process begins again.



Video of a Land Rover and trail bikes on Chapel Gate. There was a complete lack of any acknowledgement from the bikers for us opening (and closing) the gate for them.
Note how they ride up on the grassy edge of the track at the end of the clip.


The affected area.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Cheers!