Around Colsterdale

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 The Northern Echo 39 Walks what’son Walks Around Colsterdale Road for the first part of this walk Walk information all the way to High House Farm. Distance: 7.5 km (4.7 miles) Another distinctive feature of Time: 2 – 3 hours this valley are the impressive Maps: Ordnance Survey Explorer lines of gritstone crags that trace 302 and OL30 the valley slopes; our route offers Parking: Small parking area beside wonderful views across the valleys the red phone box at Gollinglith towards Slipstone Crags, a popular Foot, Colsterdale (SE 153 809) climbing spot. The upper reaches of Colsterdale are supremely Refreshments: None en route; beautiful, with the river cutting closest pub is the Black Swan at a deeply incised v-shaped gorge, Fearby thickly wooded and with tumbling Terrain: Clear moorland tracks waterfalls, whilst all around are the and quiet country lanes all the gently rising and falling moorlands. way – easy walking terrain. Some I heard my first curlew of spring muddy sections along the moorland today whilst walking along the Coal tracks. Road. How to get there: From Masham, follow a minor road westwards It was in Colsterdale back in 1914 through Fearby and then Healey that the 15th Battalion (1st Leeds) then take the turning signed West Yorkshire Regiment (Leeds Colsterdale and follow this road for Battalion), affectionately known as just over a mile to reach the hamlet the Leeds Pals as many joined up as of Gollinglith Foot (red ‘phone box). friends and family, were stationed Caution: Take care walking along for nine months as part of their the roads. training before heading over to The walk your path. Head through this gate a road. Follow this unenclosed France and ultimately the Battle and continue straight on along road straight on heading back of the Somme. They were stationed the clear track, with a wall now down through the valley, passing Points of interest at Breary Banks on land and in From the parking area beside the on your right, heading gently up the occasional farmhouse. After buildings that had been previously 1‘phone box at Gollinglith Foot across the grassy valley slopes, 2.4 km the road drops down and used by Leeds Corporation during (with your back to the road and the with Colsterdale falling away to crosses a stone bridge across Birk OLSTERDALE is a hidden the construction of the nearby ‘phone box on your left) walk across your right, for 825 metres (heading Gill Beck (tributary), after which valley that cuts deep reservoirs of Roundhill and the car park and over the footbridge through three more gates) to reach continue along the road rising up into the brooding, lonely Leighton. across the River Burn, immediately the end of the wall on your right for 500 metres then dropping back and wild moors above after which turn right along the (heather moorland ahead). Head down again, winding steeply down C By all accounts, the Leeds Pal had grassy riverside path to soon join (plantation on your left) back down Nidderdale. From its a wonderful time at Colsterdale, through this gate and walk straight source high on the moors between a clear track beside a house on to river level, where you follow training on the surrounding moors on along the very clear track (Coal Nidderdale and Coverdale around your left (ford just to your right the road for 650 metres back to the and valleys, in stark contrast to Road) heading across moorland the three distinctive flat-topped that leads back to the car park). parking area. the horrors that awaited them in slopes (beautiful views), through heather-clad heights of Little Haw, Turn left along this clear track France. more gates, for a further 1.8 km Great Haw and South Haw, the (away from the ford) and follow (heading into the upper reaches of peaty waters of the River Burn It is of some comfort to think that it passing the house on your left, Colsterdale) to eventually reach a they spent time in such a beautiful flows for several miles eastwards through a green gate and then you stone bridge across the River Burn, place before heading off to fight, to swell the waters of the River soon come to a fork beside another with High House Farm just across Mark Reid and almost certainly die, in the Ure just to the south of Masham. house where you carry straight on the valley. Walking Weekends 2015 So why is this valley not named First World War. After the Leeds along the clear track up to reach a The sociable way to enjoy the Great after its river and called Burndale? Pals left Colsterdale, the camp was gate in a wall just beyond the house Outdoors The answer lies across the hills, used as a German PoW camp. (ignore the track off to the left just Cross the bridge over the river Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District & Snowdonia for scattered across the moors are Of 900 men in the Leeds Battalion, before this gate and wall). Head 2(note the small waterfalls) walkingweekenders.co.uk primitive coal pits, worked as long 750 were killed at the Battle of the through the gate and follow the and walk up into the farmyard, ago as medieval times (or earlier) Somme. Interestingly, my great- clear track (Coal Road) straight on where you turn right along the Hill skills, outdoor adventures and and so this dale became known grandfather was a cavalryman at rising up across the hillside. The track passing in front of the team events in the great outdoors as the valley of the ‘coal pits’, or the Battle of the Somme; he was track joins a fence on your right, farmhouse and then some barns with Mark Reid. Colsterdale. Indeed, our route injured in battle but survived, and I which you follow to reach another to reach the green gate at the end teamwalking.co.uk follows a track known as the Coal still have his stirrups. gate, set in the end of a wall across of the farmyard, and the start of Countrydiary By Phil GatesBBirdwatch y Ian Kerr PRING often arrives early near the sea cliffs. Its name is UZZARDS, our most visible birds of Even by 1997 there was estimated to be seashore, where there tends to be a misnomer because prey, really are at their most visible only around 20 territorial pairs in County S milder winter conditions with fewer B it’s not a grass but at the moment with spectacular Durham, rising to around 100 pairs by 2010. frosts, so many wild flowers are already is a member of the spring aerial displays. Scanning around Since then further expansion has occurred showing new growth along our coastline. cabbage family. They near Muggleswick Common the other day, I and they are now an everyday sight in many Gorse, for example, is blooming in our sprout from dense counted two pairs soaring as well as a couple areas. This was demonstrated with the region but exceptionally fine floral displays rosettes of glossy green of distant single birds, all enjoying the Durham Bird Club recording 700 sightings can be seen along the Durham coast. leaves that resemble windy conditions. in over 200 widespread localities during One of the first coastal plants to bloom is succulent versions Two of the buzzards were displaying. They 2013. a tall member of the carrot family called of lesser celandine would go into shallow dives and then use I spent a very enjoyable half-hour watching Alexanders. Last week the plants that I foliage. Juice squeezed the momentum to rise again to continually those buzzards, plus a couple of red kites found growing in the shelter of the cliffs from the leaves is repeat this roller-coaster motion, all the and a peregrine which also appeared. It at Marsden bay had flower buds that were rich in vitamin C and time mewing into the wind. Such displays could have been even more spectacular beginning to open. It originated as a garden was formerly used have a dual purpose: to impress females and if I’d been there three days later. That’s plant, grown as a vegetable for its edible by sailors to ward off warn off intruders in their air space. when a white-tailed eagle was reported scurvy. In medieval times the plant was foliage and succulent stems but it escaped Six buzzards in sight would have been soaring over nearby Ruffside Moor before harvested in late winter and sold in markets into the wild long ago and is now usually amazing just a few years ago as their steep majestically moving off southwards further growing near the sea and never far from as a vegetable. In recent years, scurvy-grass population increase has been nothing short into Durham. habitation. Alexander’s lost popularity as has become increasingly common along of dramatic. They were formerly kept at a Waxwings have been very scarce over a vegetable when it was replaced by celery, road verges inland, where de-icing salt very low level by generations of persecution the winter with few having crossed from but its umbels of lime green provide a spread on our roads in winter has created and the big increase didn’t get underway Scandinavia and other parts of northern valuable pollen and nectar source for the a roadside habitat that mimics the salt locally until the 1990s, probably driven Europe. But a group of four have been first insects to emerge in spring.

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