Not Better, Not Worse

Beer and chips in the Flying Duck

Dales Way Association members come from all over the country and one of the highlights of the year is our annual meeting. As a constituted small charity we have a legal obligation to hold an AGM but that section of the day has always been the least important bit for me.  Every autumn members travel to Ilkley from as far afield as Essex and Northumberland, some of them booking overnight accommodation and some spending a few days in the Dales. We have a morning walk together followed by a chips and sandwiches lunch in the Flying Duck, a short business meeting and lots of chat and laughter. Over the 10 years I've been secretary I'm proud to call these people friends. So it was with a very heavy heart we contemplated cancelling the 2020 meeting. Even without the rule of 6 and the ban on meeting indoors (Ilkley is in the Bradford District and has had local restrictions in place for most of the last 3 months) we couldn't ask members to leave home and travel across the country in current circumstances. What to do instead? Zoom was out of the question with over 300 members and several of the committee less than enthusiastic. Postponing felt a bit like a cop out and cancelling altogether would be letting down our members.

So last week we compiled all the reports we normally present at our AGM into an Autumn Newsletter packed with information about the year's activities. We sent it out with a voting slip asking members whether they accepted the Annual Report, Accounts etc. and waited. I was blown away by the response. A huge number of people replied. Members of the committee got involved, responding to the comments and questions about their area of responsibility and I compiled the votes and emails into a set of minutes. We very much hope we'll be back together again next year, walking and talking on the Dales Way and enjoying our chips but I'll look back on our virtual AGM with pride. It's been hard work but a real pleasure to be in touch with so many supporters and to know that they appreciate the efforts of our small voluntary committee. 

The annual walk

 

Happy 50th birthday Dales Way - and many more of them.

 

Easy to see why the Dales Way is one of of the UK's most popular walks

March 23rd 2019 was the 50th Anniversary of the first public walk on the Dales Way, the 80 mile walk from Ilkley to the shores of Lake Windermere.  Today around 4,000 walkers a year complete the trail making it one of Britain's most popular long distance paths. 

Our Jess at the start of the Dales Way in Ilkley

The end is in sight

In 1968 an Act of Parliament, the Countryside Act, gave local authorities powers to allow public access to riversides. Members of West Riding Ramblers approached the Countryside Commission and the old West Riding County Council with a plan to create a path that followed the banks of the river Wharfe. The authorities turned down the idea but undaunted WRR went ahead anyway and the idea of the Dales Way was born - a long riverside trail from Ilkley to the source of the Wharfe high on Cam Fell. 

High on Cam Fell

Colin Speakman and the late Tom Wilcock took on the job of surveying and planning the route and Colin went on to write the first guidebook which has been in continuous publication ever since. 

Colin with the 1st and 11th editions of his guidebook

They quickly realised that Cam Fell isn’t a great place to end a walk so continued across the watershed and followed the River Dee down Dentdale and the River Lune from Sedbergh to finish on the shores of Lake Windermere. An 80 mile walk from the edge of the industrial West Riding to the Lake District through the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The article in the paper

On Monday March 10^th 1969 an article appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post about this new path inviting readers to join members of the Ramblers Association to walk the first section from Ilkley to Burnsall on Sunday March 23^rd returning by bus. Colin remembers the group expecting a dozen or so walkers. Around 130 turned up and the bus company had to put on extra buses to get everyone back. Sadly no photos survive of the day.

The Dales Way Association is planning a series of events to celebrate the 50th Anniversary year including a recreation of the first walk that Colin will lead. 

You can see them on the website at www.dalesway.org

A Guest Post from Colin Speakman

Today we've got a guest blogger. 

Colin Speakman, creator of the Dales Way long distance route writes about A Dales High Way.

A DALES HIGH WAY ENJOYS GROWING SUCCESS

The popularity of the Dales Way - soon approaching its half century - has grown to such an extent that around a dozen walking tour operators now include the Dales Way long distance walk as a package walking holiday with luggage carrying facilities.  This means it can be difficult to book accommodation in villages along some sections in the summer months. Great for the Dales and Lake District economies, but less good for independent walkers looking for a bed.

That’s just one of the reasons why its younger sister, A Dales High Way, is so welcome and important for walkers. This 90-mile route between Saltaire and Appleby was created by authors and publishers Chris and Tony Grogan in 2007.  

Whilst the Dales Way is essentially a valley route, in contrast A Dales High Way crosses high moorland, fellsides and even summit peaks, and is more physically demanding.  If the Dales Way is the perfect beginners’ long distance walk, A Dales High Way is the ideal next step up in terms of physical difficulty – and is less busy with walkers even in the height of summer. 

The Dales Way follows the river

A Dales High Way heads for the hills

It has a very distinctive character that is totally its own.  Starting in the World Heritage village of Saltaire on the edge of Bradford, it crosses Ilkley and Addingham Moors, through the Aire Gap and into the Craven limestone country, winding its way above Malham through Ribblesdale’s Three Peaks into Dentdale where for a few miles, in one of the most beautiful of all the Yorkshire Dales,  it joins the Dales Way. It then heads due north from Sedbergh across the magnificent Howgill Fells to Newbiggin on Lune, then over the Orton Fells to Great Asby and finally to the historic Westmorland capital of Appleby in the Eden Valley.  If the Dales Way joins two National Parks, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes, A Dales High Way explores the new northern extension of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and is the perfect introduction to this beautiful newly protected landscape.   A further advantage is that A Dales High Way parallels the iconic Settle to Carlisle railway, making transport to and from the start, central sections or the end of the walk far easier than using cars or taxis.

 

This new 2018-updated edition of A Dales High Way Companion by Chris and Tony is published by their own Skyware Press. 

A beautifully produced book, it reflects their enthusiasm, knowledge and skills as joint authors, photographers, cartographers and publishers.   Whilst the Companion does contain detailed instructions, if you are walking the route you also need the accompanying detailed maps contained in the Dales High Way Route Guide. This means the landscape interpretation and history can be kept dry in the rucksack and enjoyed at leisure in the pub or B&B at the end of the day's walk, while the Route Guide in it's waterproof cover takes you from stile to stile. If you buy the Companion and Route Guide together for just £15.99 there is a significant saving.    

Full details on the Skyware Press website www.skyware.co,uk.

A Dales High Way Companion (ISBN 978-1-9-911321-002) Tony & Chris Grogan, Skyware Press 112pp price £11.99

Colin Speakman

90 Glorious Miles (or how a Dent farm girl who thought hikers were a pretty odd bunch came to create a long distance walk)

I grew up in Dentdale. My dad was a shepherd and we lived on a farm called Stonehouse, huddled just under Arten Gill viaduct on the Settle Carlisle railway line. 

Under Arten Gill viaduct

Fell walking wasn’t something we did for pleasure in those days though we certainly did plenty of it. Our sheep were on Whernside, the highest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and in the days before quad bikes we walked up and down the mountain several times a year, bringing sheep home for lambing, clipping, dipping and tupping.  

Dad feeding sheep

And we certainly met plenty of walkers – the farm was close to the Youth Hostel and we’d giggle at the hikers as we called them trailing past in their orange cagouls heading for their bunkbeds while we went home to watch Top of the Pops in front of a nice warm fire.

So how did a farm girl who thought walkers were a bit bonkers end up creating A Dales High Way - the long distance trail that stretches all the way from Saltaire to Appleby through the Yorkshire Dales National Park?

To find out come and join us at Baildon Methodist Church at 7.30 on Tuesday 11th July where I'll be finishing the story and showing slides from the route as part of Baildon Walkers Are Welcome AGM. 

You don't have to be a member to come along. everyone's welcome at Walkers Are Welcome!

Orchids and Cake

When we devised the long distance walk, A Dales High Way, we wrote two books. One was a Route Guide which is a practical little book of maps to help walkers find their way. The other is A Dales High Way Companion which includes lots of information about things to do and see along the way.

The Route Guide is designed to be kept in a pocket and consulted as you walk but the Companion is the book you read in the pub, containing chapters about the history, geology, archaeology and culture of the Yorkshire Dales. We enjoyed researching stories about the Quakers and Lady Anne Clifford, rock art and fell races. The one area we were weak on though was wild life and we asked Friends of A Dales High Way chairperson Julia Pearson to suggest birds and wildflowers walkers should look out for.

Below is a short guest post from Julia about the wonderful wildflowers shortly to be spotted in Wharfe Woods.

If you are walking Dales High Way in May allow a little extra time to enjoy the specialities of Feizor as you pass through. Of course the cake at Elaine’s Tearoom is available all year round, and comes highly recommended, so once replenished continue up the track towards Wharfe Woods. Passing through the gates on the brow of the hill you will spot some stone steps in the wall on the left, and a small gate on top. For several weeks in May this is the doorway to a botanical spectacle that is well worth a diversion. 

The woodland pasture is grazed by cattle and sheep at certain times of the year which helps maintain a rich diversity of plants adapted to the limestone soils. Swathes of wood anemone, cowslips, early purple orchids and bluebells create a colourful and heat-warming sight.   

 

Cowslips and Early Purple Orchids

Later in spring you can see the uncommon wild aquilegia and you maybe lucky enough to see a redstart, a bird that arrives here in late April to breed, nesting in holes in trees.