Dalesway in parts (2)

Tuesday 31st May 2016

I am filling in the gaps of the Dalesway, an LDP running 87 miles from Ilkley to Windermere. I have encountered various sections of this route over the years which has convinced me that it must be one of the best LDPs in the country, and I have decided to fill in the gaps with circular day walks.  My last post introduced this campaign.

Reasons for my rating are several. Most of the route is on ancient established footpaths and tracks, rarely crossing cultivated fields, and having a welcome goal from the outset of following the River Wharfe to its pseudo source. Wharfedale is predominately limestone country and the Dalesway passes through many of the best parts, often crossing wild and remote areas largely unaltered. Many of the small villages fire the imagination with the old farm houses and buildings going back to the 1600s. Although a lot of the walk is through wild country, for someone wishing to backpack, camping and accommodation is plentiful all the way. Scenery changes all the time and there are endless points of interest along the way. Today's walk supported all this, and I make no apologies  for including a larger number of photos than usual.

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There was no water running into this refreshment trough and the chained plastic mug was not encouraging 

Oughtershaw Chapel
Unusual architecture for the Yorkshire Dales. Below info from the Internet:
This building was originally a school and chapel. It was built in 1856 probably by John Ruskin for Charles Woodd, in memory of his wife Lydia Wilson Woodd. The building post-dates the publication of Ruskin's "The Stones of Venice" (1851 and 53). Ruskin made frequent visits to the north of England in the later 1850s and was acquainted with the Woodd family of Oughtershaw Hall. The family archives include letters from Ruskin regarding the school. 

On the way to Nethergill

Oughtershaw Beck. This joins Greenfield Back at Beckermonds where I started this walk and the ongoing river becomes the Wharfe, so the latter does not have a source by definition.

Nethergill. At this point I was desperate for the loo. It was only about 8:45am. There was a sign at the end of this farm advertising drinks etc. but I didn't think it would be open, but I entered and found a modern room lavishly equipped as a field centre with toilets and DIY  refreshment facilities. This is a privately developed facility in conjunction with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust CLICK FOR DETAILS

What chance of finding a loo in the middle of nowhere when you need one eh?

Swarthghyll farm on the distant hillside. They have bunkhouse accommodation
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Swarthghyll farmhouse

Looking back down the Dalesway. Beckermonds where I started is back round the corner of the hill coming in from the right

Meeting of The Pennine Way, The Pennine Bridleway and the Dalesway.
Shortly after this I left the Dalesway to complete my circular route.

Ling Gill Bridge

"Carries the Pennine Way over Ling Gill, just upstream from a deep ravine created by the aforesaid watercourse. The inscription on the north wall refers to its repair in 1765 at the charge of the West Riding.

Built of gritstone from the bed of Cam Beck - this marks the transition from limestone country to peat moorland for those following the National Trail."     Geograph SD 8078

Calf Holes. A well known pot-hole - nb the water disappearing down a vertical shaft

Looking down the shaft

Identifications please. The yellow looks more like a cultivated plant than wild?

Start finish - Beckermonds right centre - anti-clockwise - 13 miles. Ignore broad pink route