Apedale and Harkerside Moor

Cicerone Guide: The Yorkshire Dales: North and East

Map: OL30

Distance: 9.8 miles

 

I do have another blog post (or several) to write up, as I attempted the Dales Way with a friend recently – but I will write that (or those) next time. For the moment, I walked about 9.8 miles around d Apedale today. Why so precise? Well, that’s what the guide book tells me the distance is ;)

I parked the car, changed into my boots and set off by ten thirty. There is a large flat gravel area just off the road on the west side of the Grinton to Redmire road, so I parked there. 

Sorry, for some reason the photo is a little dark - even on auto, the camera was having trouble with the bright sunlight today.

The footpath starts slightly to the north of the parking area, by about 100 yards or less. The path sets off heading south west and up hill. If you have read many of my posts, you will know by now that ‘up’ is not something I relish. But it wasn’t too far and I was fresh as a daisy this morning.

The path was none too clear, but the grass was slightly darker than the surrounding areas, so I had no difficulty knowing which direction to take. It was also wet underfoot! 

As the ground rose between ‘hedges’ of heather, it became drier, until I was walking on a gully full of rocks. It might possibly have been a dry stream bed, but I am not sure. Anyway, just after I left the rocky part, I met someone coming the other way – on a bicycle. Rather him than me over those rocks :O This is looking back to the rocks I had just passed:

From a distance, I could see what I thought was a signpost. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a bird table! Odd, you might think, but these are grouse moors and the birds are not just left to fend for themselves; they are carefully managed and well fed.

Once at the top, the path arrives at a point where several fences meet. 

Once at the top, I took a panorama of Swaledale behind me

and another of Wesleydale, after going through the gate.

Unfortunately, it was rather hazy!

The path then begins a gentle descent, getting gradually steeper – but never too steep – down into Apedale, to a little place known as Dent Houses. I saw several areas of grouse butts and a couple of geese, making the best of the weather and the lack of gunfire!

I met my second cyclist who had just cycled up from Dent Houses – while I said it wasn’t steep, I wouldn’t enjoy cycling up there! Shortly after the cyclist, I met a runner who had also just run up from Dent Houses :O He still had enough breath left to actually speak to me!!

Descending the hill, I had now crossed from Swaledale into Wensleydale. Dent Houses is actually a crossroads of paths, where there is a barn and another building, which I think is now either a shooting hut, or a bothy – I didn’t go to investigate, as there were other people wandering around the building and I prefer my own company.

At the crossroads, I turned right and headed along Apedale. The valley grew narrower and the path grew steeper. At one point, where there were indications of former mine workings, there was a path opposite, which I wondered where it went, zigzagging up the hill. I didn’t go exploring, but later, when I checked on the map, it would have been something of a disappointment, as it only went to the top of the hill, then stopped. Presumably for the ever increasing number of grouse butts that litter the landscape.

At one point, the path is so steep it has been laid with concrete and rippled, to give some traction to any vehicles coming along there. 

As is often the case, when I got to the top, I realised it wasn’t the top at all, but there was another ‘top’ further on, though less steep to reach. I finally arrived at the ‘gate’ which is the watershed between Wensleydale and Swaledale. 

The guidebook says that there is a wide vista laid out before you, with views to Gunnerside and beyond. Pity about the haze – the views were less than spectacular.

The next landmark was a ‘huge heap of stones’. The trouble is, the guide book didn’t specify which side of the path this heap of stones was located. I found a huge heap on the right hand side of the path and indeed there was a small, almost non-existent stream just past it.

However, there was no sign of the supposed path, so I spent a fruitless ten minutes trying to find it. I finally came to the conclusion that the book was using ‘Yorkshire miles’ and the 800 yards it mentioned was in fact quite a bit further. So I continued along the main track, looking for a not too clear footpath to the right. I needn’t have worried. The huge heap of stones was in fact humungous! 

This is more like it:

It was named ‘Morley’s Folly’ in honour of some man in the nineteenth century who probably decided to make his fortune digging out his wealth from beneath the dales’ floor. It seems however that his venture failed and all he managed to dig out was a rather substantial quantity of stone, which has been left in a heap next to the path. The faint path turned out to be a proper track – the difference between a book written in 2009 and a map printed in 2016! 

Turn right along a faint path!!

And due, of course, to the never ending grouse shooting – there is a lot of money to be had in grouse obviously and a series of tracks – well made tracks at that – has sprouted up all over these parts. Maybe Mr Morley would have had better success had he made his venture into grouse instead of lead!

According to the guide book, there is a cairn right on the track. I stopped somewhere near it to have my lunch – but it was about 150 yards behind me, as the track does not follow the line of the old path. Rounding a corner soon after, I saw the remains of a rather splendid lime kiln to my left. Originally, the path went past the front of it, but the new track passes behind it. Once past it however, there is another track that follows the old path so you can still visit the monument and see what it looks like. Unfortunately, the sun was in the wrong place (don’t get me wrong here – the sun was in the sky where it is meant to be; it was just shining straight into my lens when I wanted to photograph the kiln).

Not long after this, I encountered a shooting hut. Hopefully, I tried the doors – yes I could get into the room where there was a table and chairs; sadly, the other door was locked and probably kept exceedingly safe the very facility I needed - the toilet! Do they think hikers are going to steal it or something? (Just to clarify, I do know why they keep them locked!)

Beyond the hut, the path forked. Now I have done this path before, but from the other direction. Last time, I arrived at the fork from the left. This time, I branched right and started the long and eventually steep climb up onto High Harker Moor. The effort was well worth it – or would have been if the views had been less hazy. The top is quite flat, but even up here, there was evidence of plenty of past mine workings.

Once past the workings, the path continues, before beginning to drop down into Grovebeck. This was where I met my third cyclist, but he didn’t seem as athletic as the other two had been. From my high vantage point, I could see two other tracks to my right and began to worry that I ought perhaps to be on one of them, instead of the path I was actually on. But I allayed my own fears, telling myself that I had passed the relevant markers. The path dropped downwards and I eventually reached what looked like a crossroads of sorts, though one track was merely grass. I took the right turn and then tried to second guess myself again, as I was clearly now travelling south. After checking the map carefully, I realised yes, this part of the path did go south and was in fact one of the two paths I had seen from higher up.

After a mile or two, the path started to bear to the left, over a small stream - Grovebeck Gill:

and when it had passed a stone built hut (same issue as with the last one – no access to any toilet facilities), 

we were walking in exactly the opposite direction and I was now on the second of the two paths I had seen earlier! At this point, I met my fourth cyclist – at least, I thought he was the fourth, but as he passed me, he said ‘Hello again’, so I presume he was one of the ones I had already met. I deduced that he was probably number 2, as his bike was not orange (number one) and he wasn’t wearing blue (number 3).

Not long after this, I arrived suddenly and unexpectedly at the road. I had seen cars on the road earlier, but it had seemed further away. But what I hadn’t taken into consideration was that the road on which I had parked was at right angles to the more major road past Grinton Lodge; the road I had seen from a distance was in fact the one past the Lodge.

Anyway, a short hop skip and a jump along the road (well, more like a plod really), I could see the car and was happy to reach it.

As an aside, I drove into Reeth after reaching the car to use the facilities there. Another woman was just entering as I arrived and I thought, ‘I’m sure I know that face’. So I waited for her – and she obviously recognised me too. But it has been some time since we last saw each other, so it took a while to work out how we knew each other, as neither of us could actually place the other. Anyway, it turned out we had worked together briefly several years ago and she attended the church that had started the one I was then attending. So Ruth, in the unlikely event you are reading this, nice to meet you – and yes, you meet the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places!!