34 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 . WEEKEND TIMES dst.co.uk DARLINGTON & STOCKTON TIMES Walk facts – Cray, Buckden and Step out on Starbotton Weekend Distance: 8 miles (short walk 4 miles) Walk Time: 5 or 3 hours with David Grade: moderate a clear day Swabey Conditions: well signed and well used moorland paths. In- advisable in bad weather Refreshments: Buckden, Starbotton, Cray to get best Map: OS Explorer Map OL30. woodland. The track has in coaches or on horseback. been identified as a Roman On her journey of 1663 she road linking Wharfedale wrote “this was the first time with the fort at Bainbridge I was ever in Kettlewelldale and for centuries it was the or went over this Buckden from walk main route between the val- Rakes or the Stake ... yet ley and Wensleydale over God pleased to preserve me Kidstones Pass. Medieval in that journy”. You’ll make traders would have come an easier passage on a well HE many promi- We start in Buckden (GR this way as would church- engineered slope which, in nent peaks in the 9433773), an attractive vil- men, soldiers and, later, places, has the bare rock as TDales by their na- lage of grey limestone hous- trains of packhorses and its surface. ture provide some es. As the name implies, it drovers with their herds of At the top, and after a pause of the most spectacular was once the centre for the cattle from Askrigg fair. It to draw breath and take in viewpoints. Buckden Pike, foresters of the Percy hunt- was certainly in use in 1771 the panoramic views of the the target of this eight-mile ing preserves of Langstroth- as it appears in Jefferys’ U-shaped glacial valleys of walk, is not only one of the dale. For over a century, it County of York Surveyed. Wharfedale and its western most accessible, but can be has been the focal point for The most famous of trav- extension Langstrothdale, combined with an easy re- visitors to upper Wharfedale. ellers was the redoubtable continue for another 200 turn by the Dales Way, along Head for the top of the Na- Lady Anne Clifford, who in yards to a gate. Here we the valley floor of the tional Trust car park at the the late 17th century used it leave the Roman way and go Wharfe.The gradual ascent north edge of the village and on the way from her castle right on a path signed to of some 1,500ft is on a well- go through a gate on to the of Skipton to her estates in Buckden Pike. It’s easy to established path. Choose a track which immediately be- Westmorland. She travelled follow across Buckden Out clear day for maximum en- gins climbing Buckden Rake in a horse litter with a ret- Moor, at first over a series of joyment. through a scattering of old inue of officials and servants old, walled enclosures and then more steeply, with a hard core surface and steps to reach the summit. From the trig point the views are outstanding and make all the effort worthwhile. The walk continues ahead along the flat moorland ei- ther side of a long wall. You are advised to stay on the near side of the wall as ero- sion has seriously damaged the far side but after cross- ing one ladder stile and passing a boundary stone (RH 1810) you must cross by another ladder stile to the other side where there’s a monument to the six-man RUSTIC: The village of Starbotton Polish crew of a Wellington Knuckle Bone Pasture before merge with Buckden Out bomber which crashed here entering level grazing land. Moor. On the left the steeper in a snowstorm on January The road, now a hard sur- slopes of shale and sand- 30, 1942. The single sur- faced lane, drops steeply into stone are covered with an- vivor, Joe Fusniak, dragged Starbotton. himself with a broken ankle cient woodland. for over two miles through After the Norman Conquest, When you reach the Buck- the blizzard to be rescued, Starbotton became the last den to Hubberholme road, fortuitously, by the landlord settlement in Wharfedale on turn right over the Wharfe the boundary of the close to the White Lion, Cray. for the starting point. Langstrothdale hunting From here the path de- chase. Today it’s a tiny vil- If you wish to make a short- scends over peat bogs with lage of grey houses on the er ascent of Buckden Pike, the wall now on the right busy B6160. Turn left by the then I’ve mapped a four-mile and the bulk of Great Wh- return route from Cray. It ernside as a marker some Fox and Hounds towards four miles ahead. In about Kettlewell and at the end of means some 1,000ft of 300 yards you reach Walden the houses go right on a nar- climbing to the 2,302ft sum- Road where it passes row lane to a footbridge over mit. For most of the way you through a gate in the wall. the river. would be following very Nearby is another stone en- On the far side, turn right on roughly Joe Fusniak’s tor- graved B and O (or C), prob- the Dales Way, one of the tured journey, the crash site ably a boundary marker for most attractive of long dis- being another half mile be- Buckden and Carlton High- tance walks, linking Ilkley yond the trig point. dale parishes. with Bowness on Winder- mere. From the White Lion (GR Walden Road is an old pack- 942792) cross the B6160 It’s an easy two-mile stroll horse track linking the valley and then Cray Gill. The path back to Buckden, passing of Walden to the left with goes sharply uphill before Starbotton. Go right, through through a succession of bearing left with an accom- the gate, and down across meadows and staying close rough stony ground with ex- to the river for much of the panying wall to a gate on the tensive views of Wharfedale way, a complete contrast to skyline. Turn right on to in the distance and the the mountainous part of the Buckden Rake and the deeply incised Cam Gill far walk. Away to the right the Roman road. The signed down on the left. You then valley side rises in a series of path to the Pike is a turn to cross the rough fell of limestone terraces until they the left after three fields. Dining ranges that leave youhungry formore. Is your house aBarker and Stonehouse?