Alone Beneath The Sky: The Washburn Valley (Bottom Half) 29/05/16

17.1 miles, via Bramhope, Pool in Wharfedale, Leathley, Lindley Wood Reservoir,
Dobpark Bridge, Swinsty Reservoir, Fewston Embankment, Swinsty Hall, Dob Park,
Newall Carr & Otley.

Spring bank holiday weekend, and with Saturday scratched from the schedule, it makes more sense to make good use of Sunday for a walk of decent duration rather than only doing 10 miles or so on the Monday, so the reduced service is tested on the buses as I set course for lower Wharfedale, where more trails need to be blazed, in search of its only major tributary. Start by St Giles church in Bramhope, at 9.40am as a descent into Wharfedale with accompanying views seems like a good idea, but my chosen path down Staircase Lane stops being a residential road pretty quickly and soon becomes a shady dirt track ripe with the smell of Wild Garlic, offering no panoramas of any kind. Still, it's the quickest route down to Pool in Wharfedale, arriving on the upscale edge along Pool Bank Road, descending over the old railway site and down to the village centre, around the White Hart and St Wilfred's church, and it's another off the list of notable West Yorkshire settlements that hadn't had a visit yet. Over the Wharfe at Pool bridge, hitting the lane out towards Leathley, with views aplenty to back Caley Park and the Chevin, but few in the direction we are headed, but the road needs to be walked, rather than taking the continuing field route, as the B6161 takes us as close as can be gotten to the confluence of the Washburn, the river that we will be keeping company today, which makes occasional appearances at the roadside on the way up to Leathley, a village scattered around the parkland and church of St Oswald at it heart. Soon away from the upscale country living though, as the footpath at the side of the Washburn is met above the old mill and some quiet river walking can commence upstream, rising to the site of a trout hatchery, which the path skirts along the old goit channel and rises to meet Lindley Bridge, an impressive structure over the modestly scaled river at the valley floor.

The path continues into Lindley Wood, offering great deal of tree cover and a lot of paths for dog walkers, rising to meet the overspill channel beside the dam of Lindley Wood reservoir, and the path continues along its eastern bank, regularly concealing the expanse of water with tree cover but offering one of the most likeable paths encountered in a long while. The quiet path has me pondering the relative secrecy of the Washburn Valley, hard to see from the roads at top and bottom and well concealed by the landscape folds, and few people seem to be aware that the quartet of reservoirs in the valley are the source of most of the water for the city of Leeds, a wander here can definitely feel like you are indulging in a bit of secret knowledge. The top quarter of the reservoir offers the best aspects too, with the B6451 crossing the water via a three arched viaduct, and the Norwood Edge mast rising above the plantations high above, a fine place to rejoice the late arrival of the sunshine and to switch to the west bank in search of a lunch spot before carrying on north. Cross to the east bank via a bridge next to fences torn up by the winter floods, and head on along the pasture at the riverside before re-joining the bank on the path to Dobpark Bridge, another old one only good for foot traffic these days, with anyone using the remote having a ford provided for them. Keep on the low track by the river, through the sheep pastures below Mill House and Folly Hall farms, the most direct route to the right of way by the riverside, where a trickle of a river runs among the smoothed boulders of the river bed, making you wonder how it could ever get busy enough to flood, or to have been big enough to form the valley in which it runs. Fun ideas to ponder as the path rises below the Swinsty Embankment, containing the second reservoir on the Washburn, and site of a formative walking excursion from 2004, and the perimeter path is looking a whole lot busier now than it did a dozen years ago.

Glad to see that this path has gotten popular, and a Spring bank holiday weekend is surely a good time to get the folks out here to get in exercise or just to enjoy the beaches and picnic areas, the number of folk around is honestly surprising, all of the paths along the eastern side, up to the Smithson's Lane causeway and beyond have more people than I would expect upon them. It doesn't detract from the perimeter walk though, as peaceful solitude and an ever evolving number of views can easily come and go as the path wanders up to its outermost edge, looking down to the dam and valve tower and up to the embankment of Fewston Reservoir, all feeling a lot sunnier than it dis in 2004, and the path is a lot better too, so whilst remote corners of the county might not change all that much, a subtle difference can be found if you wait long enough. Rise to the top edge of the woods and the rise below the dam, and 10 miles into the day I feel like I could circuit Fewston Reservoir too, but a 7 mile return leg ultimately puts that idea away, and I switch out to the western bank having visited three dams but only half of the reservoirs, and Fewston and Thruscross will have to wait for a day when I can get creative with my transport. Anyway, hitting the car park and the Millennium stone at the Swinsty Moor plantation has another milestone drop away, as 2,000 solo miles go down, having arrived almost unexpectedly, and without me paying proper attention, and achievement made and then promptly forgotten about as the western perimeter path is hit with an eye on the time needed to get to Otley. It's a good path to hit at the hurry up though, wide and level and not offering as many views as the eastern side, so distance falls away as we pass below Swinsty Hall, a small reminder of the settlements lost when the reservoirs came this way in the late 19th century, and that leads down to the bottom corner of the reservoir and the return to absolute solitude on the path down the side of the runoff channel.

The broad farm tracks of Bride Cross farm again keep us at the valley floor and provide no obstacles to rapid progress, and the cows here are pleasingly docile after last week's escapades, and probably provide better going than the actual footpaths at the riverside that shadow the route northwards, and it's an odd feeling to get the reverse angle on the path previously walked, as a there and back again route is a rarity in my walking canon. Mostly keep close to the river, with an odd wander inland through Ellers Wood before a field walk that leads to my second sheepwash in a week, and soon enough we are at Dobpark bridge again, ahead of my speculative schedule but choosing to not take my afternoon break so as to make as much time as possible before we reach Otley. After riverside walking, the ascent out of the Washburn is a challenge, with about 130m to be made as Dob Park Road zig-zags uphill to Middle House farm and up through Dob Park wood, where signalling is needed to keep pout of the way of the tractor, but once up higher the evolving view into Wharfedale again is enough to keep you entertained as the lungs take the strain. Past Dob Park House and Bride Cross and the path summits, right at the grazable edge of Weston Moor, and arrival on Newall Carr Road has you on the home stretch. Of course, Otley is a ways away and the afternoon traffic has to be avoided on the descent, with the scattered farmsteads around Clifton providing some foreground to the views of Rombalds Moor and the Chevin, neither of which have we seen from this angle before. The Roebuck pub feels like it's the top of Otley, but it's actually a long way off the top of Carr Bank, and we pass the old and new Wharfedale hospitals (neither visited in 16+ years of working for LTHT) before we find that the Yew Tree is probably the place to grab a beverage on the way down, but I've got a deadline to meet. The smaller houses grow in scale as the descent continues all the way down to the riverside for a first traverse of Otley Bridge over the Wharfe, and then wander into Otley along Bridge Street but with no time to explore it's a short wander along Courthouse Street and Wesley Street to reach the bus station at 4.25pm, with just enough time to finish lunch before the X84 starts us on the long odyssey back to Morley.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2236.9 miles
2016 Total: 222.5 miles
Up Country Total: 2040.2 miles
Solo Total: 2006.8 miles