Pete's Walks - The Dales Way
Day 2 28/06/4 Burnsall to Buckden (15 miles)>
Throughout Day 1 the route of the Dales Way had closely followed the river Wharfe. Today the first and final thirds of the walk would also be close to the Wharfe, but the middle section from Grassington to Kettlewell would explore the limestone ledges immediately east of the river.
Christine, Ron and Jean crossing the stepping stones, shortly before Linton church
We started off from Burnsall, still following footpaths close to the Wharfe, which as ever made for a charming companion. There are a few alternative routes for the Dales Way hereabouts – Clare chose to follow the main route, along the east bank of the river, while the rest of us crossed over on a long sequence of stepping stones and walked through a meadow to reach Linton church. A little further on we passed Linton Falls, a rare bit of turbulence in the generally placid Wharfe. We had just started a bit of road walking, when we heard Clare calling from behind us – she’d been waiting on the far bank and saw us go past a turning where we should have turned right to cross the river. We went back (the turning was into a very narrow alley with no sign, unsurprising that we missed it), went over a footbridge (Margaret was very concerned about some ducklings going over a weir or waterfall here), and shortly reached the charming but busy village of Grassington.
Approaching Linton church
Linton church
Grassington is the ‘capital’ of Upper Wharfedale, deservedly popular with visitors. It has a cobbled square and numerous old buildings of interest, including an Old Hall and a former Town Hall. It is also home to the Upper Wharfedale Folk Musuem. We stopped for a short while to have a quick look round the village.
Path between Grassington and Conistone Pie
Looking across Wharfedale to Littondale
When we started again, we left the river and moved slowly up the hillside to the east of the river, as we headed north towards Kettlewell. This was interesting limestone country, our route was generally through large pastures, with numerous outcroppings of the bedrock. We passed a well-preserved lime-kiln, and over the wide valley to our left we saw where Littondale meets Wharfedale, forming a fork divided by the Old Cote Moor-Birks Fell ridge. At one point, as our leader Jean examined the map to check our route, a man in a passing group of walkers said loudly “See what happens when you let a women do the map-reading!” – I think he was joking!
Looking north up Wharfedale
Conistone Pie
We stopped for lunch by Conistone Pie, a very prominent limestone outcrop that from a distance looks like a man-made tower. We then continued, our attractive path running along a ledge with limestone scars both above us (to the right) and below us. We then descended beside a plantation to reach the road in the valley bottom. We followed it a short distance, before taking a path on the left that went through several small pastures (and over several stiles) to reach Kettlewell.
Kettlewell is another attractive village, at the foot of Great Whernside. It was once on a coaching route, and retains a couple of former coaching inns. We had another short break, then resumed our journey. We crossed the river on the road bridge here, and turned right, following paths and tracks to the west of the Wharfe.
We passed through numerous large pastures along the valley bottom, occasionally close to the river and never more than a field away from it. We passed the footbridge to the hamlet of Starbotton, declining to visit the pub there. Having clouded over a bit around lunchtime, it was now a warm and sunny afternoon and I think we were generally somewhat tired after a fairly long day. I think one or two people were getting a bit fed up with the innumerable stiles on this section, which can be bothersome to sore knees. But the scenery was lovely, the flat valley bottom ever so gradually narrowing between steep slopes either side.
Path between Kettlewell and Buckden
We eventually turned off the Dales Way, to cross a bridge into Buckden where we were to meet our transport home. I remember we had to wait a short while for the minibus to arrive - I tried to imitate Roy’s good example by doing some post-walk stretches.