A One Star Walk - ★☆☆☆☆

Sebergham circular - Friday 30th October 2026

It looked good on the map: a quiet Lake District backwater, a café at Caldbeck halfway round, a bonus trig point, what looked like a pleasant section of the Cumbria Way and a decent forecast. So off I go north on the M6 to Jct 41 from where the excellent B5305 projects north west in a confident straight line to  my starting point  at a good parking spot on the far side of the River Caldew bridge at Sebergham.

But...

...before we get that far...

Immediately after exiting Jct 41 the B5305 is closed and in the hectic traffic I have to rely on my mental map knowledge unable to stop to look at my map proper. and annoyance is now building within me. I manage to do a u-turn in the road and head back onto the M6 South to Penrith and the A66. After several miles I branch off on the B5288 and follow a convoluted network of narrow roads stopping often to verify my route until eventually I arrive back on the original B5305 (NOW SEE MAP BELOW) near Skelton Wood End, about 4 miles from Sebergham. So, some minor dissipation of my by now aggravated annoyance. But, as I turn left I am immdeiately confronted with yet another road closed sign two hundred yards ahead.

I branch left as far as Lamonby from whence I came to access the B5305, before deciding there is no reasonable route from there and drive back to the B5305 and look more closely at the map. There is a loop  through Skelton Wood End which may or may not bring me back  beyond the roadworks. All of that is on grass-in-the-middle narrow lanes that would normally carry almost no traffic but others are forced onto it. I am pushed to make three heart stopping manouveures onto grass and hedge and mud to facilitate passing, but fortunately when I emerge I am beyond the roadworks and at last arrive at my Sebergham bridge.

A hundred yards up the road I branch off on a steeply climbing path overgrown with brambles, nettles fallen trees and debris from our recent storms, and then emerging to continue steep climbing on pasture. The climbing is relentless for nearly 700ft and the many field boundaries with little evidence of path on the ground have involved many stops to check navigation. That ascent is more than I  am comfortable with these days, and on top of the earlier frustrations  my general feeling is, for the want of a better expression  "cheesed off."

The high point coincided with the bonus trig  a couple of hundred yards off the route, but yet another disappointment.  (Memory Map gives 956ft. of ascent for the whole route)The trig is not easily accessible and my motivation to persist is not great. A stretch of road descent and then branching off on more field paths and through forest with more stops for tricky navigation brings me to join with the anticipated pleasure of a section of the Cumbria Way. Right leads into Caldbeck, and left continuation of my route. Time lost is impeding on my desire to get back home in time to comfotably attend to my needs and to watch the F1 schedule. I decide to abort a visit to Caldbeck and turn left. What follows is two miles of squelchy muddy narrow footpath enclosed closely by forest and undergrowth with nothing to see and many short steep sections of ascent until some relief on a flat half mile of open field track leads back to my car.

I decide to head north for home rather than face the problems of my outward route and after more country lanes pick up the M6 at the Carlisle by-pass.

It seemed a long drive home from there.

Short of macro shots of nature there was little other  of note for photography. The initial driving frustration had taken their toll right from the start and never really left me, obviously tainting my overall appreciation, but nevertheleess this was not a good walk in many respects.

The overgrown path at the start

Endless steep climbing on pathless pasture, and below

Steep climbing on pathless pasture

Approaching Fellhill farm

Distant views

River Caldew

Start/finish - bridge, top right, anti-clockwise

Clough River, Garsdale

 Sunday 18th October 2026

The nine miles from Sedbergh to Garsdale Station  for years has for me been a route  to access the incomparable Yorkshire Dales beyond. The road runs along the bottom of this dramatic steep sided dale, not quite single track, but narrow and twisting with few opportunities to park. I had previously obtained permission to park opposite Swarthgill House serendipitously at the halfway point of our walk.

On a recent walk wtih Bowland Climber we arrived at Fairfield Mill at the Sedbergh end of Garsdale. That mill, now a superb museum and gallery and café was latterly powered by Garsdale's Clough River just before it discharges into the River Rawthey.

Afterwards BC suggested we may walk Clough River downstream from Garsdale Station on public footpaths with only the occasional short sections on the road. We had both previously explored upstream as far as Clough Force Waterfall which must be more or less the source which is not  defined on the OS 1:25 map. The walk would split into two four mileish sections.

Garsdale on a dullish day can seem somewhat dour, but today there was blue sky and an autumn nip in the air with sun brightening the golden and green colours dotted with limestone poutcrops, and a mixture of old woodland patches and modern pine plantation:  perfect walking scenery and perfect walking weather.

We had left my car at Swarthgill House, the rough halfpoint  and continued to our start at Garsdale Station.. From the car park we viewed  the back of Wild Boar Fell, and Knoutberry Haugh smongst others triggering memories of past endeavours for us both.

We walked back to the neatly kept station to view the bronze statue of dog Ruswarp whose master Graham Nuttall had campaigned against the proposed closure of this railway in the 1980s which was eventually saved in 1989. In January 1990 Graham went missing in the Welsh hills and his body was not found for eleven weeks during which time Ruswarp had stayed with his master.

From AI:

Ruswarp was awarded the RSPCA’s Animal Medallion and Collar for Vigilance, as well as the Animal Plaque for Intelligence and Courage. He survived long enough to attend Nuttall's funeral before passing away shortly after. 

Paths from the station took us down to cross the Garsdale road and climb to contour on the northern slopes of the dale passing various old barns  and farmhouses. We were surprised to see a number of these still occupied either as working farms or converted holiday accommodation especially considering their elevation at around the 300m contour level. The tracks we were treading were obviously from olden times providing links between these places.  Old Road was followed on a 330m. contour for a while before dropping back down to the main dale road which we crossed to climb up to Raygill farm on the southern slopes of the dale for variation and good views back to our route on the northern slopes.

At Raygill we were jolted by the sight of the rusty skeleton of an old tractor perched on rocks high on the side of a farm building. I immediately thought I may have found a tractor old enough or rare enough to fox Alan R our fellow outdoor blogger who had a lifetime's employment in the tractor industry; we rarely find anything he is unable to identify.

A shout from a barn a few yards ahead, "It's an Allis Chalmers, nineteen forties." We found the farmer and chatted - he had boyhood memories of the tractor in working order. I now know that Alan R has identified the tractor weithout any spoiler from BC on his post of this walk, otherwise I would have withheld the identification here to giveAlan R. a challenge. However if you look at the photos below I have another half concealed rust-bucket for Alan, not mentioned by BC, so we will see.

We dropped back to the road and then followed paths on the northern side of Clough River which we had not seen much of until now. Even though the paths were closer our anticipated concept of "following the river" was hardly realised, but I emphasise that was no detriment,  this had been a throughly enjoyable walk and we are looking forward to the second section to finish at Fairfield Mill.

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I strongly recommend reading BC's excellent account which invokes more of the history of this dale with lots of good photos from his new camera.

CLICK HERE FOR BC

Knowtberry Haw 676m

Garsdale Station

Heading down to Low Scale

Low Scale - we crossed the road there

One for my Relics file. BC was keen to make sure the door
was closed after he'd had a look (in case anything got spoiled!)

Now on the northern slopes, the river far down below to the left

Waterfalls coming down from Knoutberry. Not as much water as we anticipated

Down Garsdale from Old Road, southern slopes across

Zoom to distant sheepfold

The Aliss Chalmers - circa 1940s, we were told...
...and below

This and below. A hidden challenge for Alan R.

Mill Bridge

Swarthgill House - our start /finish

Lady Anne's Way - Hawes to Thwaite Bridge (final)

 Saturday 3rd October 2026

The last  of Lady Anne's Way in day walk sections.

I used The Little White Bus for the second time leaving my car at Moorcock Inn and boardng the 09:27 to Hawes for a walking start at 09:50. There was only one other passenger.

This LDP is certainly worthwhile with a mixture of country walking on easy going Yorkshire Dales sheep pasture and olden day tracks, and then higher ground again on old established tracks in the middle sections, and all in the best of Yorkshire Dales scenery. *

Today's section had all that, but the last two miles on the switchback A 684 with long stretches of uphill was tedious and hardgoing for me. A bit of an anticlimax. Suffice to say that is not actually part of LA's Way but it was necessary for logistical reasons. 

I only discovered the bus service for these last two sections and it may have been incorporated for others if I'd known.

Leaving the A684 just out of Hawes

Disused railway. I went under towards Appersett

Widdale Beck bridge at Appersett

Following the River Ure from the bridge at Appersett

LA's Way after a short section on the A684 to start the steepest ascent 

on the whole route. That enabled me to join my walk 

from Thwaite Bridge on 5th July last year: Click to view post

On the ascent, steeper than it looks.
 Last year's walk gave me the idea of mopping up this LDP being inspired by
 a woman backpacking the route that I met high up on the old rack.

Here I met my previous walk and turned left through the gate to follow the path back down to Thwaite Bridge,and the sapping two miles dodging traffic back to Moorcock Inn.

Looking back at the tough ascent. I was quite pleased with my performance

 

Back at Thwaite Bridge.

. 

Click to enlarge. 

Light Blue = LA\s Way. Blue = today. 

Red flags = previously researched parking spots

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 I write "Yorkshire Dales" to incorpoate the whole area which may include parts of other counties.

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It is becoming inreasingly difficult to construct these posts with Blogger's increasing number of glitches cutting off text or sending it off the end, and problems with underlining and putting strange frames round captions amongst others.  I have had to adopt centre aligning on the captions and create paragraphs where I wouldn't want in order to keep text going off the end. I have spent much time searching for answers on the Internet, some have worked but others not. I have been blogging for years now and am reasonably competent atsorting problems but it is just getting harder and harder. I am not prepared to spend any more valuable time for the moment trying to fix all this.

 

Lady Anne's Way - Askrigg to Hawes

 Wednesday 30th September 2026

I'm not sure if I have some kind of phobia about public transport but looking up timetables and making sure I am at departure times correctly sends me into semi-panic mode. I have already phoned the Little White Bus people who operate in Wensleydale to make sure they are still there and to confrim exactly where to wait in Hawes for the 09:17 bus to Askrigg.

To be on the safe side, and although it is only just over an hour's drive I set off at 07:12. I travel again via Ingleton and that seventeen mile deserted, switch back wild terrain B 6255 motor cylists heaven (or nemesis) and arrive at Hawes three quarters of an hour early. I sit and sup coffee from my flask and play my Freecell Daily Challenge on my phone, and worrying about discharging the battery too much. Forecast  had said rain until 10:00 then sunshine,. They were only partly correct aabout hte rain. It persisted as I waited outside the Board Inn with a walking couple from Otley. We were the only travellers. The driver was known to my couple from their previous use of the bus. He was a jolly chap and using common snese just waived me through when my bus pass didn't work - it is dated to 2029 but as far as I can remember the last time I used it was several years ago.

I am ready for the off by the church in Askrigg at 09:35. The square church tower has a ghostly appearance apparently painted uncharacteristically in an off white. It seems that essential repairs to the stonework demanded using authentic materials in sympathy with the church's age which included a limewash or similar. There has been mixed reception from locals, and others from distant parts of the globe.

In the wall an ancient indecipherable stone plaque caught my eye with a modern plea for cylists not to despoil by leaning bikes on it.

 Gleaned from the Internet:

JanetandDavid Lewins

 · 

Marion Connett. The stone was above the door of the Old Hall. Unless you were a Latin Scholar you would be unable to read it. A translation is "For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God". (taken from "Wensleydale" by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley)

Cul de sac tarmac lead to paving stones across a sheep pasture and into a wooded ravine. Climbing steeply on a wide path I was mildly concerned at the worryingly steep drop on the right plunging sixty feet down to the stream . There was no great danger, the path was wide but it was scattered with substantial gnarly roots from mature beech trees  and if one had tripped there was no way you would have stopped before hitting the bottom.

  

More fields gave extensive views across Wensleydale to Bainbridge and Addlebrough.  Alonother stretch of cul de sac tarmac road teminated at Skell Gill. From there ancient tracks more or less contoured high up on the slopes pf Wensleydale  punctuated by a line of old stone barns and the odd farmhouse all the way to Sedbusk. I do not exaggerate when I say there were I think more than twenty of those spring loaded gates akin to wildlife snares.  Although forecast had said sun at ten it was somewhere along here after eleven that sun appeared and I stashed the waterproof. Despite the shin trapping gates it was all good going on sheep pasture with views to the right up to the limestone escarpment now shinng white caught by the overdue sun. Perfect walking.

At Sedbusk paths descended to cross the Rivere Ure and a walk back into Hawes and my car. Country walking as good as it gets in my favourite locale.

I did ponder why Wensleydale and not Uredale as per the river. It seems the dale is named after the village of Wensley, but it was known in older times as Uredale or Yoredale. 

WORTH CLICKING PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

The white church, more so in real life. It stands out as a kind of anomaly and can be seen at great distance from many viewpoints in the dale

JanetandDavid Lewins

 · 

Marion Connett. The stone was above the door of the Old Hall. Unless you were a Latin Scholar you would be unable to read it. A translation is "For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God". (taken from "Wensleydale" by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley)

Walking out of Hawes

The woods and start of the climb up the ravine seen in the far distance

I have darkened the image to try and capture the overexposed stream at the bottom. The slope in many places was even steeper but difficult to photograph

Across Wensleydale to Bainbridge - still raining

Barns like this were scattered along this ancient contouring track along the slopes of Wensleydale

Perfection

Skell Gill. End of tarmac. Start of old contouring track

Addlebrough

The walls around here were skilfully constructed and maintained to perfection

High Clint limestone escarpment.
 At last: rain  stopped, sun out.

Sedbusk. Leaving the old track and descending to the River Ure and back into Hawes

Light green - Lady Anne's Way. Blue with dots my route plotted.

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