Dales Way 3 Tuesday 21st March

Dales Way 3 Tuesday 21^st March

Map: OL02 

Barden Bridge to Grassington - 7.5 miles

Barden Bridge

I slept well last night, only being woken briefly by the sound of rain lashing against the van. By the time I awoke in the morning, it sounded like it had stopped, or at least abated. Sandra had assured me yesterday that the weather was going to be dull, but not raining, and was definitely set to improve as the week progressed. I got up and stepped outside the van. Sandra had been right – it was dull and certainly not raining. No, it was snowing!! And the temperature in the van was a massive 4 degrees!!

We had breakfast and prepared lunch to carry with us, then set off with both vehicles to drive to Grassington, where we left my van and took Sandra’s back to Barden Bridge. We had done over 9 miles yesterday to break us in gently and planned only to do 7½ miles today. Neither of us had done a long distance walk over several days for some time before this, so we didn’t want to have to stop due to blistered feet or wrenched muscles. As we drove, we noticed just how much snow there had fallen over night – the higher hills were covered.

Setting off, we realised it was going to be another mud bath! We trudged to Burnsall (about 3 miles) and detoured into the village to take some photographs. 

There were plenty of lambs in the fields

Look Mum, I can fly!

and plenty of water in the river.

It only took us 1½ hours to get here so it was too early for lunch, but we did look at the church and the old Grammar School, which was still a school, but now a primary school. 

The village also boasts a maypole 

and it still had a red telephone box. 

The church has an unusual lych gate. When we arrived, we couldn’t see anything particularly special about it, apart from it being a little wider than most others. 

It wasn’t till we opened it that we realised what the difference was – it pivoted in the middle and was ‘hinged’ by a pulley in the wall. 

The church itself has a blue face – we thought that was a rarity, but apparently there are several in this area; the rarity is because there are not many anywhere else. This one is octagonal, which was different.

The clouds decided to clear briefly so we could get some decent photographs of the church.

There were some interesting gravestones too, but apparently we missed the really exciting ones - there are some Viking carved stones in the form of a hog's back, but I didn't know they were there and we didn't see them as we walked around.

And, of course, the inevitable bridge across the river.

By now the weather was decidedly cold and wet, with occasional patches of blue sky – and we had been beaten by hail stones too. 

So we continued on towards Grassington, which was going to be the biggest place we would pass through on our journey. The route proved to be more muddy meadows, gushing water, bridges and lambs. There were also more people today and most of them seemed to have dogs. I had something of a whirling dervish at the end of the lead, making photography rather difficult. In the end, if I wanted to take a photo, I gave the lead to Sandra and as Storm was so ‘lively’ let’s say, we took turns on the holding end while we walked too. Finally, there were lots and lots of hail stones!! There was an oncoming wind, so we were lashed several times by the stinging wet stones, which then lay in heaps on the paths. Poor Storm was wet, dirty and cold – her fur was still muddy and matted from yesterday and so her insulation layer had been somewhat compromised. But she battled on through the hail and didn’t appear to be suffering at all.

We arrived at a place called ‘Loup Scar’. The path we were walking is apparently very ancient. Burnsall is likely to be or Norse origin, and the path to Grassingtron would have been walked from those ancient times - or so the sign by the River told us anyway.

Loup Scar is a place where the river narrows and the water gushes through rapidly. We had expected it to be rather spectacular with all the rain that had been falling over the last few days, but to be honest, it wasn’t as exciting as we had expected. We decided that the reason might be because there was in fact too much water in the river, making it smoother over the rocks. Apparently, downstream from here (ie back the way we had just come) is very popular with canoeists – rather them than me, is all I could say to that!

Along this stretch, we passed a helpful sign nailed to a tree: 'Tents will be shifted'. It didn't explain where they might be shifted to, but the river was alarmingly close

Shortly after that, we reached ‘the swing bridge’. We had to wait underneath the bridge for several minutes to keep Storm away from a group of people with a couple of dogs. The bridge was too narrow for us to pass anyway, but even if it had been, trying to pass with Storm would not have been the best idea we’d had all day! Eventually, we stepped onto the bridge and set off across it. And it did swing too! It is in fact a suspension bridge, not an actual swing bridge, but I renamed it for obvious reasons. It swung from side to side in a most alarming manner.

Very soon, we could see Linton church in the distance, with its unusual tower. 

It is on the other side of the river and can be accessed by stepping stones across the river, which is fairly wide at this point. But today, there was no sign of the stepping stones. Either they had been washed away, or they were so totally covered with rushing water, they were completely hidden. Either way, it wasn’t a way we intended to go, thankfully. 

Somewhere about here are the stepping stones!

Instead we swung round, following the edge of the river and came upon Linton Falls. 

The opposite bank was a sheer rock wall and built onto the rock were some houses. We wondered how noisy it might be inside those houses with the water thundering onto the side of the rock just beneath them and swirling round the bend.

After crossing another field or so, we could see Grassington to our right. the path came to a crossroads of other footpaths. To the left was a wooden bridge – the safer way to enter Linton; straight ahead was the next stage of our path; to the right was a steepish path leading back to the car park where we had left my van this morning. We decided to return to the van up the path as we would be starting from the same point in the morning and would be able to do the last couple of hundred yards to Grassington Bridge in the morning.

We left Storm in the van and walked into the town. 

There is no church of England church here, as Linton church is so close. I wondered how many would be filling the pews on a day like today before the foot bridge was built? No-one from Grassington would have been able to get across the stepping stones and it was easily a couple of miles round by the road. Grassington does however have a Methodist church and a Congregational church, so it’s not entirely heathen J

On one building is a sign indicating the ‘Smiddy’ of one Tom Lee, who apparently murdered a local doctor who had told him he needed to mend his drunken ways. Tom then took the doctor’s body to Loup Scar and threw it in the river.

The centre of the village is quite quaint, with its cobbled streets. Despite the weather, it still looked lovely. 

They have every conceivable shop – hardware, clothing, a butcher, a wine shop, an outdoor shop, a small super market – and of course several coffee shops. We had of course to enter one and sample the delights – coffee and cake, though I ate the cake and Sandra drank the coffee (black). The proprietors were very helpful and, as I can’t eat too much sugar at one time, they wrapped up half my cake for me to take away with me.

When we returned to the campsite, we tried to clean Storm up a bit. The owner/manager gave me a watering can full of warm water, but I hadn’t brought any doggy shampoo with me, so it wasn’t very successful. I didn’t want to keep going back and asking for more water, so we went to the sluice area and washed her down with the hose. Unfortunately the water was cold, naturally, as it was an outside tap. So poor Storm went back to the van went and shivering. We dried her off as well as we could with her towel, but she was still muddy and her fur was still clumped together under her belly. The Sandra hit on a bright idea – we had electricity and I had brought a hairdryer – would she object to being blow-dried? It was worth a try anyway. In the end, she absolutely loved it. She has always enjoyed having the wind in her face, but this was not only wind, it was warm!! She half closed her eyes and leaned back – sheer bliss written all over her face. Unfortunately it is impossible to take a photograph with a hairdryer in one hand and a wriggling dog in the other, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

After tea, we decided to take a short drive (minus Storm) to a village we had by-passed en route – Appletreewick. 

The diversion to it from the path is mentioned in the guidebook, but we had had enough of hail stones and cold wind by then, so we didn’t bother. This evening though, the sun came out for a short while and we took some photos of a lovely village with a wonderful ‘other worldly’ and remote feel to it. There were several ancient buildings, an old church and – a red phone box J

After that, back to the vans and another early night. Tomorrow was going to be a bit longer – around ten miles, and the drive of course was getting longer each day, so we wanted to set off as early as we could.

Finally, we checked the weather forecast. It was going to be very wet tomorrow and I was having misgivings about taking Storm. She does not have a coat (other than her own fur) and driving rain was likely to soak right through to her skin. Bearing in mind that her insulation was already compromised by her fur clumping together and the mud we had been unable to remove, I wasn’t happy about dragging her through a soaking wet day and making her thoroughly miserable. What’s more, around 9.30-10pm, the rain had started to pour steadily. If it continued all night and through the next day, she would only get more muddy (being close to the ground as she is) but also wet through. Was it worth the risk?