After a crazily busy September where we were away from home nearly every single weekend, I’ve enjoyed being able to relax and explore a bit closer to home. The Yorkshire Dales are practically on our doorstep and there are so many amazing places we still have yet to discover! Last weekend we again headed down to Nidderdale, to walk the countryside around Middlesmoor – a tiny village which has been perched on the Nidderdale hillside for hundreds of years, and which today seems largely unchanged by modern life.
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Nidderdale is always quieter than the ‘official’ Yorkshire Dales. For some reason it was never included in the national park boundaries, and instead had to settle for AONB status (granted in 1994). Despite this, it’s just as worthy of a visit as Wensleydale and Wharfedale, with rolling hills and fluffy sheep galore. It’s usually a lot quieter too.
We picked out a six mile circular walk from our Cicerone guide to the North and Eastern Dales – there’s a similar, shorter walk online on the AllTrails website. You can either start in Middlesmoor from the small parking area here, or park at the How Stean Gorge Cafe if you’re stopping by for lunch before or after your walk. The route itself is generally pretty easy, following the edge of the How Stean Gorge (although sadly you don’t see much of the gorge on the route) before climbing up a rough grassy hill (hard work even if it’s not particularly steep), to reach a surfaced track you follow most of the way back to the start.
The leaves were just starting to turn last weekend, and the fields and hills were that lovely combination of rich green, light yellow and crisp orange which only seems to last for a few days every year. We were also treated to a clear blue sky for some of the walk, but we’d forgotten that clear blue skies in autumn and winter are generally accompanied by a cold and ‘bracing’ breeze! Not to mention a slippy section of riverbank, where the leaf mulch on wet rock turned the path into a temporary ice rink. I must admit to getting a bit ratty after Merry spent about fifteen minutes trying his level best to drag me into the river!
Despite this we still had a good walk, enjoying the views and peace and quiet – we didn’t see anyone until the very end of the walk. My favourite view was looking out over the dale from the cemetery in Middlesmoor – not a bad place to spend eternity.
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. Dogs need to be on leads around here due to livestock (we saw both sheep and cows) and ground nesting birds – I thought Merry was going to have a meltdown with all the grouse flying around! On the plus side though, this is a lovely quiet walk with few people and hardly any road walking. We also didn’t have any trouble with any of the stiles along the way, as they are all of a more dog friendly variety where the dog can easily climb over on their own. The highlight for Coal was splashing in the river, but keep an eye out where they jump in – poor Coal jumped in off a two foot drop and then couldn’t work out he had to swim along the bank to get out, leading to Sam having to fish him out by the scruff of his neck!
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What an amazing shot across the landscape from the churchyard. I can see why it’s an AONB.
Beautiful! 😍
A beautiful reminder of just how stunning England is, thank you. I am from Sussex and Yorkshire is sadly a long haul, but I have explored a bit on bicycle and foot.