It was Sam’s turn to pick our weekly exploration of a new walk last weekend, and he chose a relatively short circular walk starting from Thwaite Bridge and returning along a section of the Dales High Way. Sam had run along here in the summer and promised me great views out towards Wild Boar Fell. It was a bit of a wet and windy one in the end, and I was very glad that we were only out for a few hours and not a whole day!
The route we followed was this four and a half mile circular on the OS Maps app. We parked in the large lay-by off the main road in Thwaite Bridge, setting off along grassy field tracks which I think are best described as ‘squelchy’ – not over the top of your boots, but similar to how I imagine walking through a paddy field would be. The path alternates between being relatively flat and gently climbing, before a right hand turn along the Pennine Bridleway starts a steeper ascent.
At this point, we should have been getting some lovely views over to Wild Boar Fell to motivate us up the climb: instead, the cloud came down and the wind picked up, gusting a delightful wave of drizzle into our faces. I have to say I was pretty miserable as I dragged myself up the hill, happily though it’s a relatively short climb and once we reached the Dales High Way, the walk returned to level ground and a handy drystone wall blocked the worst of the wind.
This section of the walk was fairly high up, and I imagine if we hadn’t been walking in the middle of a cloud the views would have been pretty far reaching. Alas, we couldn’t see anything more than five metres in front of us, and contented ourselves with spotting the different types of moss growing on the wall. The land up here is access land with a dog restriction, so if you have a dog make sure you keep it under close control and stick to public rights of way.
Before long, we began our descent, again walking along grassy, soggy field tracks. I’m definitely not as fit as I was at the end of the summer and my legs were certainly feeling it by the time we got to the car at the bottom!
Dog friendly rating – 2/5. There are sheep throughout this walk, and it also passes through access land with a dog restriction, so leads are needed all the way around. There are plenty of stiles of all shapes and sizes: ladder stiles, wall stiles, normal climb-over-them stiles, and they’re all in pretty good shape without the normal gaps for dogs to squeeze through. Luckily clambering over stiles on their own is old hat to our dogs, but if your dog needs a helping hand with stiles, be prepared to do a lot of heavy lifting.
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