Lady Anne's Way - Skipton to Barden Bridge

 Friday 11th September 2026

What a good day but bracketed at each end firstly by a steep ascent from the start and a steep ascent at the end, and  secondly bracketed by logistic considerations at both start and finish.

I booked a taxi the day before to pick me up at Barden Bridge at 8:30am. There is limited parking at the bridge which fills up quickly most days and I was relying on getting a spot at that early hour, but worried that I might not. The alternative was to park  at Barden Tower, and walk back down to the bridge for the taxi. Fortune prevailed: that parking spot was slmost empty. Suffice to say when I returned later in the day it was crammed full. In order to ensure I would have time to sort out the potential parking change I had allowed myself an extra half hour for the drive. 

Logistics at the end of he day were dictated by a new TV. That was scheduled for Thursday but re-arranged by my tv man for this day and I had told him it would have to be after 4:00pm. That meant I had to walk 7.6 miles with 1052 ft. of ascent (about as much as I want to do these days) and leave enough time for the one and a half hour drive back home to arrive by 4:00pm so my walk was under a little bit of time pressure.

I had just driven onto my drive at excatly 4:00pm and had phone in hand to let Tv Man know I was home when I looked up to  see him arriving.

As I walked past the start of Lady Anne's Way in Skipton the church clock struck 8:45. The road passes over Eller Beck which was used in the past to provide power for mills down steeam but now powers a turbine for input to the National Grid. Wikipedia has an incredibly detailed entry for Eller Beck. Just after the beck crossing a dauntingly steep tarmac road eventually leads to a cropped grass steep climb to summit Park Hill at 169m. That was a toughy for me at the start of the day but there was a grand view of Skipton and surroundings. The well found path descended now to cross Skipton golf couurse, quiet at this time in the morning. On the narrow tarmac lane leading to Embsay there were good views of the proper little mountain of Embsay Crag where climbing features and now more popular with the inrease in bouldering as a sport in its own right.

The planner for modern housing in Embsay had been obliged to leave a narrow fenced public footpath in front of of the houses bordering onto the outake fields, I thought of it as The Embsay By-pass. I popped into the church at Embsay. There was a grave there for a guy called Randle who must have been a keen cyclist or motorbiker. An enlarged version of a cycle chain had been well sculpted from polished wood laid on the grave.

At Eastby I took a shot of Eastby Crag, another venue of short but immaculate gritstone climbing in this part of of the Dales. Here I met an elderly woman with two large containers of tomatoes she had been picking, red and green for two different kinds of chutney I was told. I had been perusing my map on my phone and she tried to direct me onto a footpath, "but it's very nettly" she said. Fortunately I realised that was not my path, but it is easy to be mislead by well meaning folk met along the way.

I was intrigued by Mawking Hole shown on the map. That turned out to be a hollowed out feature of reeds and swamp with little to commend it and no reference whatsover that I could find on the internet. At Halton East I passed by Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream. Here a larger than one would have thought justified are large farm like factory premises with a repository of perhaps twenty or thirty redundant ice cream vans which much go back many years and left to rot and somewhat of an eyesore in this particular countryside. All quite strange. 

From Halton East pleasant grassy sheep pasture soon started to climb for my grand finale, end of the day, steep climb to go over the shoulder of Middle Hare Head. Nearer the summit the path although well established was shrouded by deep rushes and heather making for a section of hard going before a welcome long descent on a better path to the road and a walk out back to Barden Bridge. A great day in superb Dales country with the added nostalgia of my many wanderings in the Dales during and after my formative years.

  WORTH CLICKING PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Barden Bridge - 8:00am. The parking is off to the right of the photo

Skipton church. Note the clock at 8:45am

Eller Beck. Ex provider of power for the old mills, now for the National Grid

The steep climb out of Skipton, halfway up

This seemed to be the standard format for perhaps fifteen or so that I straddled and wobbled over during the walk

Embsay Moor and in the distance Burnsall Fell 

The Embsay by-pass

A good bit of posher Yorkshire Dales architecture

Eastby Cragg

Embsay church

The wooden crafted bike chain presumably for a biker or cyclist

In Eastby, and below

Eastby Crag

On of the many old Yorkshire Dales lanes - this had evidence of cobbled pathway under a modern spread of chippings, but still full of atmosphere and good for walking

The disappointing Mawking Hole

Cragg House Farm

The Halton East Mission. An ex unconsecrated place of worship, now a residence I think

Pleasant pasture before the climb over the left dhoulder of Middle Hare Head seen in the distance

A bit of tough going approaching the summit. There was a path but it was shrouded with the reeds and heather

Barden Moor

Barden Tower

Just the bit in the middle now. Looking forward to that. Can be done without taxis

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Lady Anne's Way - Cliburn to Penrith

 Monday 7th September 2026

I had been harbouring anxiety about this section because of the long, unavoidable stretch of busy road with only grass verges. I should have been more concerned about the short footpath from Cliburn to link up with that road. The first few yards went through a farmyard in a most unlkely manner but I can't complain because there were footpath signs, but high up on a barn side, and it was only after much toing  and froing that I  spotted them. Further on rough pasture had several indistinct paths, and I wandered without checking GPS before getting. back on the path proper. Somewhere I lost the path again and ended up on the wrong side of a low barbed wire fence that I managed to straddle. It was a messy and frustrating start to the day. I would advise anybody walking this to pay careful attention to keep strictly to the path using GPS and make sure of being on the correct side of field boundaries.

The long stretch of road was not busy and turned out to be more amenable than I had anticipated and although boring I was now able to make good time for this 8.4 mile walk. 

A combintion of lanes and fields and wooded paths followed, all quite ordinary and not much of interest to see. Just before exiting to Brougham Hall the path through woods arrives at a strange home made gate in the wall with no footpath sign, and unlikely as it seems this is the route to follow and then some tricky map reading is needed to get onto the tarmac road leading eventually to Brougham Castle. There is a full history on Wiki for the hall and the castle which you may read if you are a devotee of medieval history, but, as this is part of the raison d'être of this walk here are the relevant sections describing Lady Anne's involvement:

Brougham Hall

The hall, usually sold in third parts, passed through the hands of various families in medieval times. Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford, the then owner of Brougham Castle, bought one third part of Brougham Hall in 1654. Amongst other improvements, she re-built the Hall's chapel, St. Wilfrid's, completed about 1659. Lady Anne's attorney-at law and later her steward, James Bird, bought her third of the Hall and manor after her death (1676), being the first person to hold the entirety of the building since the de Broughams.^[2]

^{As castles go Brougham is pretty impressive especially with its}

 ^{imperious elevated position} overlooking the River Eamont.

 I hadn't time but it would  be worth a visit.

^{Brougham Castle}

In 1643, Lady Anne Clifford inherited the estates, including the castles of Brougham, Appleby, and Brough, and set about restoring them. Brougham Castle was kept in good condition for a short time, after Lady Anne's death in 1676; however, Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet, who had inherited the Clifford estates, sold the furnishings in 1714. The empty shell was left to decay, as it was too costly to maintain. As a ruin, Brougham Castle inspired a painting by J. M. W. Turner, and was mentioned at the start of William Wordsworth's poem The Prelude, as well as becoming the subject of Wordsworth's Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors. The castle was left to the Ministry of Works, in the 1930s, and is today maintained by its successor, English Heritage

The road ends just past the castle then easy walking field footpath follows the bends of the river wihich was in lively mood boastfully reflecting sunlight from its fast moving currents. 

Eamont Bridge would look elegant and historic but it is hidden by a modern  ugly conglomeration of iron and steel, I suppose the possibility of something more aesthetic cofounded the designers.

Lady Anne's Way folows footpaths and minor back roads to climb up to the centre of Penrith and the finish, but that was closed beyond the limits of my penchant to trespass and I had to follow the main road into Penrith  finishing at Lady Anne's Way terminus in Duke Street. A taxi ride with a jolly taxi lady took me back to my car at Cliburn.

I am now looking forwards to filling in the remaining sections from my beloved limestone dales country starting from Skipton. See map below.

Singpost to Larch cottage where I bought rare dwarf shrubs over twenty years ago

Leaving the long busy road into pylon land. They are shown on the OS maps but puzzlingly better depicted on the 1:50 than on the 1:25

A bit of woodland, part of the varied walking after leaving the road

Brougham Hall

Brougham Castle, and below

Sunlight on the fast moving river

Old bridge abutment

Spot the old elegant bridge!

In Penrith

See the street sign, Duke Street, end of Lady Anne's Way.

Green, Lady Anne's Way, pink, the same and my route as plotted

Blue = done
Green= to do

Lady Anne's Way - Kirkby Thore to Cliburn

 Monday 31st August 2026

There was no alterative to a long there and back for this section with the need to park a car at the far point for next time. I could reduce the return distance to some extent using quiet roads. I could also see the possibility of using the disused railway line at one point leading dirctly back to my starting point, but if that was not viable I would have to carry on to the A66 death trap and opt for suicidal walking back to The Bridge, or extend the walk by footpath and roads to enter Kirkby Thore by the back door and that is what happened, so until I was back home I hadn't plotted the exact distance. It turned out to be 9.4 miles, that is more than I have walked for a long time, but although a bit tired at the end I was by no means on my knees ( good job in view of their semi artificial construction.)

After pleassnt riverside paths there were less friendly sections through woods with rugged twisting paths eventually leading to the superb red sandstone, multi arch Ousenstand Bridge. A long stretch of tarmac followed which I could see vanishing to a pinpoint, all too far ahead.

At Crossrigg Hall I was back on decent footpaths with more pleasureable walking. An unusual Victorian post box was seen here of a design I have never seen before. My path only skirted the hall, but the Wikipedia details fascinating history of a string of wealthy owners with military and East India Company comnections amongst others and leading up to modern times where there seems to have been plans to develop this into a leisure complex. I noticed the extensive use of proud and sturdy decorative cast-iron railings around the estate. During WW2 iron railings were comprehensively "acquired" by the powers that be to boost weapons and aircraft production. I wondered if these were rare survivors in this out of the way backwater. Just imagine the "Powers" coming round today and taking your railings - it is amazing the lengths gone to  and the inventiveness and improvisation  in the desperation of our situation at that time and that should be remembered. 

Further on a man on a quad bike stopped and remarked on me being a "lone walker." We chatted with interest for perhaps ten minutes on a range of subjects partly influenced by not much of a gap beteen our advanced years.

Arriving at Cliburn I decided to return by roads which turned out to be much busier than I had anticipated perhaps due to it being August bank holiday.

After having to contnue to the A66, the footpath  across the road to Kirkby Thore was blocked by large security fencing plastered with warning notices,  part of the on-going major realignment of the A66. Surprisingly I managed to open the gate and complete my walk to Kirkby Thore.

Immediately oppositeThe Bridge on the A66 where I had parked. Crossing that road was not for the faint hearted

Following the River Eden

Identification? Looked unusual to me

The splendid Ousenstand bridge. Unusually dominating considering it is in the middle of nowhere on a relatively minor road

Tarmac disappearing a long way into the distance

See close up of rare Victorian post box below

The superb iron railngs mentioned above. They look to be in too good condition for circa WW2 unless they have been meticulously maintained over the years 

More of interest on this Crossrigg estate, a fine avenue of oak trees

Quite a lot of corn being grown in the area

Cliburn

Odd?

Blue Lady Anne's way (not a river.) My route red

Blue    = Done
 Green = To do