Aysgarth Falls & Carperby

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2017 The Northern Echo 39 Walks what’son Walks Aysgarth Falls & Carperby WALK INFORMATION reach a small wall-gate across your the wall on your right to reach a gate Distance: 7.2 km (4.5 miles) path (50 metres down from the road). at the bottom of the narrow field, After the wall-gate, head straight on then walk straight on through the Time: 2–3 hours (bearing very slightly right) dropping farmyard (large barns) to quickly Maps: Ordnance Survey Explorer down the bank into a shallow valley reach a farm track, where you head OL30 – always carry an OS map on (passing a spring at the bottom of through the gate ahead, down along your walk this valley), then continue in the the narrow grassy field/track then Parking: National Park pay & display same direction to reach a gate in the pass between the houses to emerge car park at Aysgarth Falls far right corner of the field. Head onto a track at the western end of through the gate and walk along Refreshments: Aysgarth Falls and Carperby, which you follow to the the rough track for 25 metres then left onto the village green. Carperby turn left at the wall corner on your How to get there: Follow the A684 left (signpost), and walk across the through Wensleydale towards Hawes field (small stream to your left) to Walk across the village green, then, at the Aysgarth Falls Hotel, take reach a wall-stile just to the right of 5passing the stepped Market Cross, the turning that leads steeply down a gate, by the entrance to the sewage 50 metres after which (opposite over Yore Bridge (Upper Falls) and works. After the stile, follow the path the bus shelter) turn right along then round to the National Park car straight on with the wall (and sewage a driveway in between the houses park. works) on your left, over a fence then (signpost ‘Low Lane End’), and follow Terrain: Woodland paths, field paths, carry straight on across three more this to soon reach a gate that leads farm tracks, country lanes. Farmland, wall-stiles (narrow fields) then turn out onto a field. Bear left across the numerous stiles and some small right at the path junction (signpost) field and through a large gap in the stream crossings. and walk up the narrow field to reach wall to your left (signpost), after a gate at the top that leads onto the Caution: Take care crossing the which walk straight on across the road opposite the Wheatsheaf Hotel roads. You may encounter cattle along narrow field to reach a squeeze-stile. at Carperby. this walk – give them a wide berth and Do NOT head through this squeeze- avoid completely if accompanied by a stile, but turn right and follow the the footpath on the right-hand side (and old railway line). Head to the dog. Some boggy ground. Turn right along the road for 100 wall on your left down the narrow of the road) then, at the car park right along the track for 50 metres 4metres then take the road turning field to join Low Lane. Turn right entrance, follow the road-side path to then left through a small gate that off to the left (information sign) along Low Lane to soon reach a the right to soon cross the road (take leads out onto a field, after which POINTS OF INTEREST and follow this lane for 100 metres care) through the gates opposite that head right across the middle of the T-junction with a road. Aysgarth Falls are set in a beautiful to reach a small triangular green, lead into Freeholders’ Wood. After the field to reach a small gate in the wall wooded gorge and are easily where you carry straight on along gates you come immediately to a fork on the opposite side, marked by a accessible with a fine view of the the lane up out of the village. Follow Turn left along the road and follow in the path – take the left-hand path signpost. Head through the gate, and Upper Falls from the ancient Yore this lane rising up, then levelling out 6it for 40 metres then, on the bend, (signpost ‘Castle Bolton’), and follow bear slightly left across the middle of Bridge that spans the river. From (lane becomes a track) where you take the path on the right (signpost this meandering through the woods, the field for 350 metres (Bolton Castle Aysgarth Falls, a path leads through carry on for 300 metres passing two ‘Aysgarth’). After the stile, walk through a clearing (fencing) to reach in the distance) down to reach a wall- Freeholders’ Wood and then St barns to reach the foot of the steep straight on across the field alongside a fork where you bear right (signpost) stile (signpost), with High Thoresby Jospeh’s Wood. bank (Yorkshire Water sign), where the wall/road on your left to reach a then on to reach a crossroads of paths Farm ahead. you branch off to the left along a wall-stile, after which carry straight Beyond this woodland we cross where you carry straight on to reach rough grassy track through a metal on bearing very slightly right away and re-cross the route of the former a gate at the end of Freeholders’ Wood gate (at the foot of this steep bank). Wensleydale Railway, which once (after 350 metres), with St Joseph’s Do NOT head through this from the road, heading down across connected the Settle to Carlisle line Wood ahead. Head through the gate 3wall-stile, but turn left before After the gate, follow the wide path the field (passing just to the right of at Garsdale Head with the main and follow the clear path straight on it (signpost ‘Carperby’), and walk straight on alongside the wall on a circular clump of trees enclosed North East line at Northallerton. through the woodland for 350 metres straight on alongside the wall on your left heading along the foot of by railings on a knoll) and down a Work began on the Wensleydale to reach a small tunnel beneath the your right for 250 metres to reach a the steep bank (Ponderledge Scar) grassy gully to reach a stile that Railway in 1848, although it took old railway line. gate that then leads through a small for 650 metres to reach a fork in the leads into woodland at the bottom a full thirty years to complete the tunnel beneath the old railway line track, where you head left for a few of the field. Follow the path over line in its entirety. This railway (if this is flooded, then bypass it by paces to quickly reach a gate to your the old railway line, and down back provided a vital link across the Head through the tunnel beneath walking to the left over the old railway left. Head through the gate and walk into the car park at Aysgarth Falls. heart of England for almost a century, 2the railway line, then follow the line embankment). After the railway down along the long narrow field Mark Reid bringing a pulse of life to remote track ahead curving to the right tunnel, carry straight on for a further along the farm track, through a gate Hill Skills & Outdoor Adventures communities as well as offering one then, where the track bends left (by 400 metres alongside the wall on your across the track then continue down the corner of a small wood on your right (passing a barn) to join a single- the narrow field along the track for Yorkshire Dales, Lake of the most scenic journeys in the District & beyond country. left), turn off this track to the right track road. Turn right along the road 175 metres then, as you reach the (signpost). Walk straight on across and through a gate across the road brow of a bank, head left over a stile. the field, passing a large tree, for 200 then take the path that branches off After the stile, bear right towards THE WALK Unique corporate activity days, metres to reach a small wall-gate. to the right across the field (signpost), the far bottom field corner to reach a navigation skills and team building From the National Park Centre Head through the gate and walk for walking parallel with the road on your stile over a wall beside a gate, which experiences in the great outdoors. 1at Aysgarth Falls, walk back to a further 200 metres through young left (and only very gradually moving leads onto a long narrow field. Cross teamwalking.co.uk the entrance to the car park (use trees to join a track beside a gate away from the road) for 150 metres to the stile and walk down alongside Birdwatch Ian Kerr T may be high summer as far as we in their gloriously bright breeding the crew of a local fishing boat. Among smaller species, willow are concerned with many of us yet plumage. These include the godwits While busy hauling their creels, warblers and chiffchaffs are also Ito enjoy our holidays, but for many and knots in shades of orange and the skipper scrabbled under his drifting southwards on the first of our birds autumn has already red and golden plover in glossy gold, waterproofs to reach his mobile stage of their migration, which black and white. It’s the one time of arrived. Over the past fortnight or phone. He was baffled to find no will take them to Africa and the so the first returning Arctic waders year for us when knot live up to their indication of a missing call or text.

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