Exploring the Dales

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018 The Northern Echo 35 Walks what’son Walks Exploring the Dales Walk information HIS is a fine airy walk, perfect for a bracing Distance: Roughly 12.5 miles winter day in the moors Height to Climb: 450m (1,480 feet) (leave plenty of time as Tit is a long walk but on Start: SE 092743. There is a good tracks) . The walk is full of small car park at the top end of contrasts, open moorland, remote Middlesmoor. farms, stunning views and all Difficulty: A long day but on good framed by two remote reservoirs. tracks and paths throughout. There The first time I visited the Upper are some steep climbs and certainly Nidd I was attacked by an angry start the walk early. pheasant (I had probably disturbed Refreshments: Middlesmoor has its young) but it never put me off, it a pub called the Crown, as does is still one of the classic places to nearby Lofthouse. explore in the Dales. Be Prepared: The route I prefer starting this walk in description and sketch map only Middlesmoor but it is just as provide a guide to the walk. You convenient to start in Lofthouse, must take out and be able to ½ a mile away. Both villages are Scar House Reservoir very pretty, both have a pub named read a map and in cloudy/misty the Crown and both have sufficient conditions a compass. You must parking. Middlesmoor has a small also wear the correct clothing and car park a 100m above the Crown, The track then drops steeply community, situated well on a footwear for the outdoors. Whilst southerly course, sticking close to head north east from here, along towards the first of the 2 Upper well-travelled pack horse route, every effort is made to provide the rim of the Nidd valley. After a good farmers track. The track Nidderdale Reservoirs, Scar House. with many nearby farms and a accurate information, walkers head a further mile the track arrives climbs steadily to the high point at There are 3 reservoirs in the bustling community, even before out at their own risk. at the spectacularly situated 1,500feet at Rain Stang before the the arrival of the reservoir valley but Gouthwaite is further Shooters Lodge, from here take Please observe the Countryside views open up impressively to the builders. Now most, but not all, south. Scar House Reservoir was the bridleway steeply downhill, Code and park sensibly. north and some wild lands. lies under the reservoirs and much completed in 1936 and provides in to the valley at Thrope Farm. that remains are the village and water for Bradford, plenty of it Cross the River Nidd at the farm engineering (including a narrow with the dam itself over 50 m high. and walk for a 200m alongside the gauge rail track/route) from the Apparently it is great for fishing, river before taking the footpath to construction of the reservoirs. A with brown trout the most common your right, and after 10 miles of truly fascinating history. catch and it is also a fine location walking, depressingly steep slopes. for bird watching. On meeting the However this is a walk and there However it genuinely is not as bad reservoir head west alongside the are many miles yet to complete. as it looks and before you have waters till arriving at the second Follow the excellent track east to time to get grumpy you are back reservoir Angram. Go no further the end of Scar House Reservoir I Middlesmoor and probably the west. Ahead is bleak country, I and then take the footpath which Crown pub. once found myself in this vast bog climbs for a 100 m when the main whilst seeking a new route up Great track drops to the dam. The path Whernside, never again. (part of the Nidderdale Way) heads Cross the over the dam of Angram over the wonderfully name Woo Jonathan Smith runs and head north east along a path Gill. It is near here that 3 tinkers Where2walk, a walking soon turning in to a good track to bodies were once discovered, company in the Yorkshire the north of Scar House Reservoir. headless, in a place known as Dead Dales. Jonathan has written his On reaching the track let your Mans Hill! Take the high route own book, the “Dales 30” which imagination take over at what has from Woo Gill that bends gradually describes the highest mountains become known as the ‘Lost Village south with spectacular views over in the Dales. He also runs 1 of Lodge’. Remains exist of a the Upper Nidderdale Valley. I do Day Navigation Courses for village that almost certainly dated prefer this high route purely for Beginners and Intermediates. back to the Middle Ages. During the views both behind you to the Join his Learn a Skill, Climb a the summer of 2016 archaeologists west and ahead to the south. Hill weekends in the Dales. To discovered remains that confirmed Once the path settles in to a find out more details on any its ancient beginnings. In the southerly direction it soon meets of the above visit his popular 19th century Lodge was a busy a shooters track and carries on its website, where2walk.co.uk Birdwatch By Ian Kerr HE illegal persecution of suspicious circumstances. There moors brought condemnation Critics claim the initiative is hen harriers. No doubt it’s a raptors is back in the news was also a pair of peregrine and derision, almost in equal simply to appease wealthy and subject we’ll be hearing a lot more T with two developments falcons found poisoned near their measure, from birders. The idea politically influential grouse about. within the past week which nest which held three young. shooting interests and has nothing is to rear the young in captivity Back in the real world, the desert highlight the problem. The Fortunately, the young were to do with helping the species. and then released them back into wheatear, present at Whitby first was the publication of the rescued, placed in other nests the wild. The stated aim is to help The RSPB says it is implacably latest update from the RSPB’s with similar sized chicks and all opposed and has described the since before Christmas, suddenly the species which is on the brink vanished last weekend. Four tail investigation team which neatly were successfully fostered and of extinction in England as a proposals as nonsense. It is coincided with a controversial fledged. Away from raptors, there feathers found at its regular site breeding species. calling on Environment Secretary decision by Natural England was also a sickening case of a Michael Gove to intervene, indicated that it may have come to to press ahead with its “brood North Yorkshire man convicted The plan will come into effect withdraw the licence and a sad end. management” scheme for hen of persecuting a family of greylag if two pairs of harriers are concentrate instead on combating harriers, the most systematically geese, chasing and killing three found nesting within 10km of the regular and illegal shooting persecuted species of all. goslings with a spade. each-other. As there were only of hen harriers and other raptors The RSPB team detailed the Meanwhile, the decision by civil three successful breeding pairs if he really wants to help these deliberate burning of a harrier servants at Natural England to bred in England last year, all in species. The general view of nest on a moorland site and issue a licence to legally allow hen Northumberland and none on birders is that adult hen harriers reported that another satellite- harrier eggs or chicks to be taken grouse moors, this threshold may rather than civil servants are tagged bird had vanished in from nests on northern grouse prove a bit difficult to reach. probably best at rearing young.

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