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