Walks 33 what’son

Walk Information Distance: 9.5 km (6 miles) Walks and Airton Time: 3 hours Map: OS Explorer Sheet OL2 Parking: Pay and Display car park at Malham Refreshments: Malham, then carry on alongside the wall on along the driveway passing behind Airton and Points of interest your left then, where this wall turns the house then to the left-hand side Terrain: Field and riverside The rises just to the south away, head left alongside this wall at of the garages to reach a wall stile paths all the way, with lots of Malham at the impressive Aire first then bear away (signpost) that leads out onto a field. Head of wall stiles as well as Head. This powerful spring is the across the middle of the field to straight across the field and over a muddy sections and some source of the River Aire which reach a gate just to the left of the wall-stile (just beside a wall corner), slippery steps. swells the waters of Malham Beck house. After the gate, head on (house then walk across the next field and How to get there: From the and Gordale Beck. The waters of down to your right) to reach a over a ladder stile then carry on A65 ( to Settle road) Aire Head actually flow squeeze-stile in the bottom corner across the next field through a gate at Gargrave, head north underground all the way from Water that leads onto the road (on a sharp in a wall. After this gate head to the along a minor road to reach Sinks just to the south of Malham bend) in Hanlith. right down across the field to a stile Malham. Caution: Take care along Tarn about three miles away. The in the far bottom corner (where a the riverside paths, name of the River Aire is thought to Turn right and follow the road hedge joins a wall) that leads onto particularly after heavy be derived from the ancient Celtic 2winding steeply down through the the Malham Road. rain. The steps that leads words for “strong river”. From village to reach Hanlith Bridge As you reach the road turn down into Kirkby Malham Malham, a delightful riverside path across the River Aire. Immediately immediately left through the gate are slippery. I encountered leads all the way to Airton, which is before the bridge take the footpath (signpost Warber Hill) into the field cows and calves on this named after this river and simply to the left (signpost , adjacent to the field you have just walk – always give them a means the ‘enclosure by the Aire’. Airton) and follow the riverside path walked across. Walk up across the wide berth. Hidden away in the village is the straight on heading downstream to field alongside the wall on your left Quaker Friends’ Meeting House, reach a gate at the end of the large then, as you approach the top of the which dates back to 1658 (although field that leads onto a short section field, bear right through a gateway re-built in the 1690s), one of the of track, with a wooded bank on where the fence joins a wall at the earliest Friends’ Meeting Houses in your left and the river on your right. top of the field. After the gateway, existence. The adjacent bunkhouse You soon reach another gate that bear right up across the field was originally a stable block that leads back out onto field – continue through a gateway in a wall, after was converted in 1940 as a hostel for along the riverside path across the which walk straight on up alongside evacuees, and has since been used as rough field to reach two small gates the wall on your right, over a wall a bunkhouse for walkers along the in quick succession beside a stile then carry on alongside the wall Pennine Way. meander in the river. Head through then, three-quarters of the way the gates and walk straight on across this field, cross the wall-stile keeping close to the wall on your left to your right (just beyond a The walk (river bends away) – the wall soon protruding wall corner). After this From the road junction in the bends away, where you carry on wall-stile, walk straight on alongside 1 centre of Malham beside the road- across the field to reach a footbridge the wall on your right rising up bridge across Malham Beck, head to your left over a side-stream at the across two fields (and wall-stiles) along the road towards ‘Settle, end of the field (ignore the then gently drop down to reach a Skipton’ passing the Buck Inn on footbridge to your right across the wall across your path where you down to reach a wall-stile then left and down to Scalegill Watermill. The your right then, immediately after river). Cross the footbridge, then turn left across the field to reach a into woodland and follow the steps path heads through a kissing gate to the small blacksmiths’ shop on your head to the right across the field gate (and track) immediately to the steeply down to a footbridge across a the left of the entrance to the mill. left, turn left over a stone clapper- then along the wooded riverbank all left of a barn, and just to the left of a stream then out to emerge onto a Follow this clear path passing to the bridge across Malham Beck to join a the way to reach a road bridge across small narrow plantation (one of road opposite the church at Kirkby left of the mill then on alongside the track beyond. Turn right along the the River Aire on the edge of Airton. three Deepdale Barns). Head Malham. old mill race and then the overgrown track and follow it to soon reach a through the gate and walk straight mill pond to reach a wall stile at the gate across the path beside a ford on Turn right along the road across on along the rough track alongside Turn right along the road to reach end of the clear path (weir and start the edge of Malham (stream on your 3the bridge and up into the village, the fence/narrow plantation on your 4a road junction in the centre of of the mill race just down to your right). Head through the gate and forking left at the village green up to right then, where this fence ends, Kirkby Malham beside the Victoria right). Cross the stile then head follow the clear path across two reach a road junction with the main carry on up across the field bearing Inn, where you head straight over straight on across the field and over fields, gradually bearing away from road through the village. Head slightly left to reach a gate in a wall along the road opposite towards another stile after which continue the stream, and through a kissing straight over along the road ahead (signpost). Head through the gate Hanlith and follow this down out of straight on passing Aire Head gate where you reach a path towards ‘Otterburn, Hellifield’ and and turn immediately right the village then, where the road (spring). Carry straight on through a junction. Branch off to the right follow the lane rising up for 150 (signpost Kirk Gait) down along the bends slightly right just after the gate across a track after which head along the grassy path straight across metres then, where it levels out, turn wall on your right to reach a stile in large barns, turn left along an straight on across the field (ignore the field (signpost Pennine Way, right at a small triangular green the corner of the field, after which enclosed stony track and follow this the track up to the left) with Malham Hanlith) to reach a kissing-gate in a (lamp and bench) along a track drop down over a small bridge across straight on then bending left to Beck on your right back into fence, after which head straight on (signpost). Follow this track on to a stream set in a gully then head reach the road on the edge of Kirkby Malham over the stone-slab Black Hole soon reach the end of the houses straight on across the middle of the Malham (barn on your left on the Bridge across Gordale Beck then where you carry straight on along field (heading towards the right- corner). At this junction with the Mark Reid follow the path rising up to reach a the enclosed grassy path heading hand side of the small plantation road, turn right over a wall stile Author of The Inn Way series. kissing-gate a wall beside a large down to join another road at the ahead) to reach a stile in the top (signpost Malham) then walk up www.innway.co.uk tree. After the gate, walk straight on northern end of Airton. Turn left corner of the field immediately across the field alongside the wall on across the hillside, with the infant then immediately right (curving before this woodland. Head over the your left for 150 metres to reach a River Aire down to your right, to sharply round to the right) heading stile and drop down the bank signpost where you bear to the right Unique corporate activity days, reach a small gate in a wall just back into Airton for 75 metres then alongside the woodland (Kirkby across the field up to reach a wall navigation skills and team building above a small plantation. Head turn left (signpost Malham Road) Malham ahead) to reach a stile in the stile. Cross the wall-stile, then carry experiences in the Great Outdoors. through this gate and walk straight beside a house (100 metres before the bottom corner of the field, after straight on over the next field along teamwalking.co.uk on across the field to reach a gate main dale road). Follow this path up which follow the path to the right a grassy path, through a wall gap Countrydiary Birdwatch

OR several of our wild flowers, numerous seeds. This persistent weed’s T’S amazing what a sudden change of Mary’s Island and on the Farne Islands summer ends violently. Take gorse, pods fly apart at the slightest touch and wind can do, particularly when it where one sang. The little influx also F pictured, for example. Its seed pods hurl seeds around the garden. Icomes with some heavy and prolonged included a Wryneck at Hartlepool have now turned black and are drying out, Members of the violet family, which rain. Not everyone’s idea of good bank Headland, an Icterine Warbler at and this process leads to the build-up of includes the mountain pansy that holiday weather, but it certainly produced Filey and a scattering of Pied tremendous forces in a thin layer of flourishes in our part of the Pennines, use some good coastal birding. The brief shift Flycatchers. parchment-like cells in its pod wall. The a different explosive mechanism to into the north at the weekend brought a Strong winds and rain often make sea- two halves of the pod are naturally glued disperse their seeds. When its dome-shaped welcome influx of small migrants with watching rewarding with by far the best together along a suture and on sunny days, capsule ripens it splits into three segments the accent on quality rather than find being a Great Shearwater moving when the build up of tension finally that bend outwards and curl in at the quantity. north off Hartlepool Headland on reaches a critical level, this zone of edges, each enclosing a line of seeds in a Barred Warblers from breeding grounds Monday, the first for the site since weakness suddenly gives way, so the pod vice-like grip as the capsule wall dries. The from central Europe and eastwards, were September 2007. A Long-tailed Skua was halves twist and fly apart, hurling out the seeds have a shiny, smooth coat and when seeds. prominent with individuals at Boulby, seen from the South Gare and there were the squeezing force on them reaches an Loftus, South Gare and Whitburn while half a dozen reported over as many days There’s a tiny beetle called a gorse weevil irresistible level, they are fired out, in further north at least four were scattered at Whitburn, where the Bonaparte’s that lays its eggs in gorse pods in early much the same way that a wet bar of soap between Budle Bay, the Farne Islands and Gull reappeared after a seven-day summer and it finishes feeding just before flies out of your hand when you grip it Holy Island. All were pale juveniles absence. the pods explode, so its pupa is also hurled tightly. Phil Gates without the striking adult barring which out with the seeds. A Broad-billed Sandpiper turned up at most birders only see on visits to breeding Nosterfield, perhaps the bird which spend The same seed dispersal mechanism grounds. Record numbers occurred in the a couple of days recently at Seaton Snook operates in many of the vetches in our region in 2010, few arrived in 2011, but on and Seal Sands. Ospreys continued to countryside and also in hairy bittercress, a the showing of the past few days we could frequent Lockwood Beck and Derwent familiar garden weed whose rosettes of be in for another good autumn. and another was at the Pilgrims’ Way, leaves appear in spring and quickly Greenish Warblers from northern east Lindisfarne, where they are now almost produce a spike of tiny white flowers that Europe, or perhaps from further east into routine in early autumn. develop into long, narrow pods with Russia, were at Tynemouth Haven, St Ian Kerr