National Trail Guides UK

Contents : DALES WAY


		Introduction		Day 5
		Day 1		Day 6
		Day 2		Day 7
		Day 3		Day 8
		Day 4		Day 9

THE DALES WAY RUNS FROM ILKELY (YORKSHIRE) TO BOWNESS (LAKES)

NATIONAL TRAILS GUIDES UK - DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS & GALLERIES

Day 8 :: Into the Lakes :: Crook of Lune Bridge to Burneside :: 9 miles

Today started off a little cooler and a little cloudier, than our previous days of walking, and although Carol and I thought it would rain it did not, and as the day progressed the sun showed more and more of itself so that by the end of the walk it was almost as hot as the previous days.

We started beneath the arch of the viaduct where we left off yesterday and walked up to the junction of the minor road above, turning right on this and then left into Beck Foot. We turned left again, following the Dales Way signs, and into the garden of an attractive white cottage. Passing beyond the cottage we took a narrow and overgrown track, which opened out into a hedge and tree-lined field. Looking back we had a terrific view of the viaduct from where we had just walked.



Beck Foot: The Dales Way passes through the garden of this cottage		Looking back at Crook of Lune viaduct from Beck Foot

We climbed the brow of a small hill which was dotted here and there with solitary trees, and in the top corner of the field we found a stile and crossed to another field. Cutting across from our right to a point ahead of us was the M6 motorway and we were nearing it every minute. We walked around the top edge of the field, with clusters of trees below us.

We were heading towards Lakethwaite Farm, which we could now see. At the farm we joined a farm access road and used a stile on our right to leave it just before actually reaching the farm buildings. We then walked around the edge of a field and could hear children playing in the farm garden just beyond the hedge. The path kept with the perimeter of the hedge and farm, notwithstanding a more obvious path leading ahead but in the wrong direction.

We then left the field to join another access road and turned right upon this. We passed a flock of sheep sheltering from the sun under the leaves of a solitary tree and continued along the track until reaching a minor road at its end. Turning left on the road we almost immediately crossed from it through a stile in the hedge onto a grassy track well endowed with clover. This led along the edge of a stone wall until reaching a ladder stile to cross it.

On the other side was another grassy track that angled in to another wall and a bridge across the M6.



Fields between Beck Foot and Lakethwaite Farm		Sheep sheltering from the sun at Lakethwaite Farm



Footbridge over the M6		Turning sharp left after leaving bridge to pass by this farm

Crossing the bridge we came immediately to a farm and turned sharp left to the farm track, passing to the left of the buildings. The track very shortly came to a minor road. We turned left and after only 50 yards there was a short track on our right leading to a gate and then diagonally across a field, and then a further stile led to a rougher field. We climbed the brow of a hill and then left the field to take a very narrow track between a hedgerow and a wooden fence, and emerged at Holme Park, where we gave salutations to one of the owners, four horses and a dog.

Passing beyond the farm we took another narrow track and crossed through a series of stiles until reaching a gate to a field by some large felled tree trunks. This led to an open field, and a faintly discernible path across the centre of a field. At the end of the field we approached some attractive buildings, and passing beyond them we came to the access road to Moresdale Hall. We crossed this and continued on a wooden path, and crossed another drive, sighting Moresdale Hall, which appeared to be undergoing renovation.

Passing through the final bit of woodland track we emerged at a gate to a track running through some moorland. We left the short stretch of moorland via a gate leading to a minor road.



Dales Way leaving Holme Park		The Dales Way passes along these homes near Moresdale Hall



Moresdale Hall		Carol, fully equipped with her ipod at Thatchmoor Head



View from Thatchmoor Head - railway at end of field		Beck on the approach to Greenhead Farm

Turning left on the road we walked a short while until reaching a junction, where we turned right. Following our guide book we walked downhill until reaching a white house and then passed through a gate opposite onto a field. There was a footpath diversion here. Following the diversion we found ourselves back on the road about 100 yards further down, and instead of crossing the field and railway as we expected, we crossed the railway by the road bridge immediately after which there was a stile and steps down to a path on our left. This led to a field with a railway line on its left boundary.

Carol took delight here in picking raspberries and we feasted on them for quite a while, enjoying their succulent fresh taste. The path continued along the railway for some time, passing over several stiles, until reaching the point in the guide book where we meant originally to have emerged from the field at Thatchmoor Head.

At this point there was a sign pointing to our right, down the field and aiming for a large meander of the a beck. It was very pretty here. There were cattle dotted around and the grass was very green and fertile looking. The beck meandered lazily.



Beck and king cups near Grayrigg Foot Farm		The Dales Way through Thursgill Farm

The field had electric fencing and part while along it there was an unusual gate consisting of two tall stakes with a crossbar, and a blue piece of string attached to a nail. One had to left up the string to pass through, and replace the string on the nail. A rough but effective design to allow access to humans but not to animals.

At the beck there was a rough farm track and we turned sharp left on this before reaching the farm gate and followed it for quite a while until reaching Green Head Farm. Our path took us around the left of the farm buildings and through an open gate down a farm drive. Just where the drive swept to the left over a cattle grid there was a signpost pointing out the Dales Way over the grass to our right.

We then followed a track over the field edge alongside a pretty row of trees, coming eventually to a small footbridge over a beck wit king cups growing on its watery banks. Just beyond the footbridge was Grayrigg Foot Farm. We passed through the farm gate, onto a track and then onto the A685, turning right and almost immediately leaving the road at a signpost on the left along a track leading to Thursgill Farm.



Fields at Thursgill Farm - this is where we stopped for lunch		River Mint

This was an attractive, long and winding path through green fields. Near the bottom of the track, before it ascended to the farm, we crossed another beck and then turned left through a gate and crossed the field, walking around a knoll. Here we stopped for lunch - a tin of mackerel each, an orange and a drink of water.

Usually, after resting for 5 minutes, our feet are very sore when we stand up to leave. Not so today. I had invested in surgical spirits yesterday and had treated my feet 4 times to the spirits before leaving on today's walk. My feet were much better than yesterday.

We left and completed our trip to the bottom of the field, reaching and passing a stile into another field. We crossed the field diagonally and passed through a gate onto a narrow field path. This led us to a wooden footbridge over the River Mint.



Colonial style house - Shaw End		Dales Way near High Barn

On the other side of the bridge we walked over a field, passed trees and to a gate leading to a graveled lane. We followed this for about a hundred yards until reaching a well-hidden gate on our left. If we hadn't been looking for it we would have missed it.

Before passing through the gate, looking to the opposite side of the lane there was a very distinctive and striking colonial style house (Shaw End) sited prominently on the hills in the near distance.

We passed through the gate and followed a narrow field track with trees on our right, until coming out at High Barn. I was just remarking to Carol that we the path appeared to be going though a garden, when a voice shouted us from over a wall and asked if we were looking for the Dale's Way. The Dales Way did indeed run through his garden, but not the garden we were in.

We corrected ourselves and almost immediately walked into another garden by mistake. At the end of another garden (a correct one), there was a lady sitting, drawing. She apologised to us for the path we were about to take, upon leaving her garden. She said it did not belong to her and was not very well kept.

One look at it sent shivers down my spine. I had shorts on again. There was a very narrow track that went on for about 400 metres through a dense patch of nettles and briars. It eventually came out on a lane just a few yards from the drive to the house.



Nettles at High Barn		Black Moss Mere

We crossed the road and entered the grounds of Biglands Farm. We passed through the farm yard, in front of the farm buildings, where we were amused to observe several children playing. They smiled and waved to us. We next crossed a few stiles into a field, walked past a free range chicken run and walked across several fields towards Black Moss Mere. Our guide book advised us that it would be easy to make out the path to the mere once reaching a triangular field. We reached the field but could not make out the correct way across.

We found it eventually, however, and found our way to the Mere, walking around its right-hand edge and then up a hill to a pylon and then descending the hill to walk into the farm yard of New House Farm. We passed around a wall on the outside of the farm, following an unofficial arrow that had been placed there, and re-entered the farm at a gate towards its rear, and left almost immediately through a wooden gate that led to a track across a field.



Dales Way to Goodham Scales		View from Goodham Scales



Garnet Folds		Dales Way over footbridge near Burton House

We followed the narrow track for some distance towards Goodham Scales, which we could see in the distance. As we neared the farm we could see, over to our right, another small mere by a cluster of trees. We found our way to a gate and followed a lane downhill until reaching a number of small houses making up the hamlet of Garnet Folds. The surface of the lane improved as we descended. We passed a footpath to our right leading to Otter Bank.

Eventually the lane came out on the A6, which we crossed and turned left and almost immediately turned right to follow a graveled path to Burton House. We passed round the left of the farm to cross a stile over a wire fence and then followed a track over a field. We encountered a stile and wooden footbridge over a beck and then took up a graveled track and then a grassy track across a field and crossed diagonally to a ladder stile over a hedge. And then another stile and several more fields and stiles, eventually reaching the minor road that leads to Burneside. We followed the road about half a mile into Burneside and found the car park where we had left the car.


Day 7	Day 9

Author - Roy McKee