The Spring - Summer transition offers us long days, but cooler than those to come, so it's a fine time to get some long days on the trail, and it's been an age since I gave proper attention to Lower Wharfedale, still missing from my schedule for some reason, and heading out to Ilkley feels like visiting an old friend that I haven't seen in a while, a home from home in 2013 and not seen since, so let's get busy with the bottom half of the Wharfe, it deserves the attention after three years away. Off the train at 9.30am, and the sights of Brook Street and New Brook Street are still familiar, going down the steps to Ilkley Park and setting off along the riverside path, under the bridge and westwards, a direction not previously travelled, with allotments, semis and terraces facing the Wharfe before we slip into wooded seclusion alongside the cemetery. Altogether too short a stretch before we are forced to change sides, over the 1934 chain-link suspension bridge, and to join the many cyclists on the north bank using Denton Road, a riverside lane that hides the water behind a bank of trees and offers few substantial views to the north, but still preferable to attempting the stepping stones crossing (with a huge gap in the middle) or the far too narrow Denton Bridge. Quieter going beyond there but keep away from Denton as the road wanders away from the river and its quite a surprise to shift onto the front lawn of Denton Hall, finally giving us something to see in the north, and Low Park Road provides views south to the bulk of Rombalds Moor and its ever-evolving profile. As the lane becomes West Lane, it rises further away from the valley floor and the welcome sunshine gives more definition to the southern views, as well as teasing the distant Otley Chevin, whilst my feel for the locations of southern Wharfedale seems to be instinctively good, so all the time spent over on that side wasn't wasted. Arrive in the village of Askwith, to find it quite large and strung out along the lane, superbly picturesque and an ideal spot for elevenses if it wasn't for a complete lack of benches, so paces continue on, too early for watering at the Askwith Arms and so downhill again, with the fields to the north suggesting manorial park land that has recently turned to agriculture, and that does seem to be a recurrent theme on this northern side of Wharfedale.
Approaching Weston hamlet, we meet a field laid out for a rather upscale wedding reception, complete with marquee, impressive view and what a car park (!), and it's certain to entertain more people than the hamlet could, a couple of farms and a tea shop associated to the pair of estates, but it does have a bench and stocks in the shade of trees, so elevenses are consumed before pressing on. A corner can be taken off the road that has been our constant companion on this side of the Wharfe, by taking the footpath through Weston Park, but there'll be no sight lines to the seat of the Civil War Generals Fairfax, as Weston Hall hides behind landscape wrinkles and foliage, and more attention has to be paid to the risk of cows, unsettled by my passing. Hit the tree-lined driveway down to the Italianate lodge at the gate, returning to Weston Road and finding Otley has already arrived, with its council estate and suburban face looking over the road to the flooded gravel pits where the local sailing club now lives, also finding another Throstle Nest farm, which seem to be located all over the county. Peel off the road at Green Lane, cutting another corner as we hit the path on the perimeter of the local showgrounds, where the Otley Carnival seems to be setting out its stall for the day, but I've arrived early enough to miss most of the shenanigans, but not the crowds so it all feels a bit too busy once I meet the road again to pass over the Wharfe via Otley bridge, the river finally putting in another appearance on this supposed river walk. No obvious paths are found eastwards on our return to the south bank, so a path has to be made through the town centre, taking in Clapgate, Kirkgate and Boroughgate, spotting the Old Grammar School where noted carpenter Thomas Chippendale was educated, the pub where I celebrated my Graduation (nearly 20 years ago) The Black Horse, and the proud Georgian frontages on the A659, indicating that this and not the Leeds Road was always the main focus of the town. Press on, noting that this is also a Rugby Union town, and that the maypole on Manchester Place should be more famous before burning out through the suburbia along Cross Green and Pool Road, just far enough from the river to be at low risk from flooding (unlike the new developments behind the cemetery) out as far as the garden centre and getting away from the road around another variety of playing fields.
A field walk beyond Otley's last residential street gives easy going whilst it has sheep providing the company, getting a good look over to Farnley Park to the north and the masses of the Chevin and Caley Park to the south, but speeds are dropped once the meadows are met, very long grass, thankfully dry, means a lot of hauled footsteps and wondering if it would have been easier to stick to the A659 roadside. Back on Pool Road we have ourselves a footway, stealing us past Caley Lodge and back to the edge of the Wharfe, and taking us past the Marton Mills site, still industrial with the Weidmann Whitley plant at its heart, but the most important resident has to be Wharfe Bank brewery, whose ales I could recommend at great length. Not too far along is the edge of Pool in Wharfedale, but the village won't fall onto today's track, as I pass the other side of the Shell Garage to go across Pool Bridge once again, illustrating that the Wharfe crossings on my Washburn walk weren't really that far apart, finding the riverside path to the east and starting some proper river walking again, thankful that this track has been recently mown, not that finding a clear spot of a late lunch break is all that easy. Moving on, there are still a few Boxing day flood remnants to be seen, whilst a look north will add Riffa Wood and Almscliffe Crags to the local landscape, and once the road is met (some distance away from Castley, despite what the signs say) a look south will bring Wharfedale (or Arthington) viaduct into the scenery, and I might bang on about the lost railways and their relics in this county, but we really do have a few beauties that are still in use. Again there's a bit too much vegetation and too many wrinkles to get a really good shot of it, but once the hamlet of Castley is finally met, such worries fall aside somewhat, as here's another settlement loaded with charm and a few houses that almost seem too big for it, as well as it seeming to sit upon the railway embankment that lies above it. Heavy gloom descending on the day has the need to press on being felt, so find the enclosed path that leads up to the stinking cattle creep that passes through the embankment to give us our final quarter of Wharfedale to observe, looking forwards to Rawden Hill and Harewood Park, with the peripheries of Arthington Park also visible, but before the press east can go ahead, a pull up Wescoe Hill has to be made rising some 40m above the river before gaining the road down towards Weeton, a fine view coming as the reward for the ascent.
There's a lot of traffic coming the other way on the roll downhill, soon identified as many cars making their way to a wedding reception, and a chat with a local man, out mowing his lawn, indicates that I missed the coach and horses and that the bonkers 50s Chevrolet was not actually a member of the party, and I'll speculate that they were all headed to Weston, for it looked like the right sort of fit, and the car park was certainly large enough. That can count as the odd coincidence for the day as attention draws to the spire of Weeton's church, set well away from the village, and despite passing the village's signs we won't be seeing any more of it than St Barnabas's, itself mostly concealed by a bank of trees. Gallogate Lane forms a loop among arable fields to get us close enough to the Wharfe to be able to hear but not see it, and at the bottom of the lane we get another excellent view of Rawden Hill before turning north to see church and crags once again, heading east once we find the track to the sewage works. Local farmers are out herding their cattle with a 4x4 and whistling signals, which is certainly a new one for me, and some of their skills might have been handy on the path to Rougemont Carr woods, where a bunch of bovines are extremely reluctant to get out of my way once I've made a stream crossing, but I escape unscathed, though further convinced that cows are stupid. The woods bring extra fascination and interest, the ditch and mound at its perimeter indicating its antiquity as a former enclosed settlement, whilst signage within describes the site of Rougemont Castle, a local seat of power from Anglo-Saxon times to 1377, when the Earls of Harewood were granted license to crenalate, and moved elsewhere. Field walk down to the riverside path beyond, well concealed by a lot of vegetation, and I'm thankful for dryness in the long grass on the plod to the weir above Harewood Bridge, which appears to be broken and causing the north bank to be gouged at times of heavy flow, a nice illustration of the river's force to be had before arriving at Harewood bridge itself, passing to the south bank for the last time and enjoying long watering break before the final push. A long steady walk along the placid river on a good path, passing the mysterious Harewood chimney about three-quarters of the way along, before hitting Fitts Lane to fill in the gap between the Wharfe and Harewood, an unwelcome push uphill to the A61 at the end of the day, and it's far too late for watering at the Harewood Arms or for visiting friends as the day ends at 4.45pm, the village tour postponed for another day, once again.
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2286.1 miles
2016 Total: 271.7 miles
Up Country Total: 2089.4 miles
Solo Total: 2055.2 miles
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| New Brook Street bridge, Ilkley, and a wholly new adventure down the Wharfe starts here, three years in the making! |
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| 1934 Suspension Bridge, Ilkley, bouncy underfoot and very attractive. |
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| Denton Hall, with the road crossing the front lawn. The northern side of Lower Wharfedale seems to have a thing for it's estates and noble houses. |
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| Askwith, much bigger than it looks on the map! |
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| Near Weston, and an upmarket Wedding reception is due for later in the day, and they didn't have to pay for the view, but I think I got the better weather. |
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| Weston Park, near Otley. The house hides away but who doesn't love a good driveway? |
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| Otley Grammar School, most obviously aged building in the town and site of Thomas Chippendale's education, one of Wharfedale's gems. |
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| The Manchester Place Maypole, Otley, and you wonder why this isn't more famous? Maybe it's just an over-large weathervane? |
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| Back at the riverside on the A659 Pool Road. |
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| Pool Bridge, and you wonder if all the Wharfe bridges came out of the same 18th century pattern book |
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| The Wharfe and Wharfedale (or Arthington) Viaduct, boldest construction in the Dale? |
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| Castley, hard to capture how this hamlet appears to have been dropped on the railway embankment. |
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| Ascending Wescoe Hill for our last look back down the Dale, complete with gratuitous train action. |
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| St Barnabas's church, Weeton, set back from the road and impossible to photograph from almost any angle. |
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| Rougemont Castle, an entertaining find of much greater antiquity and interest than I was expecting, a seat of power for over 400 years. |
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| Harewood Mill Weir, with water only running over the northern side and gouging at the riverbanks when in full flow, another illustration of nature's power unleashed. |
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| Harewood Bridge, and the Lower Wharfe has such a wonderful selection of excellent old bridges, as if the modern world never quite arrived. |
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| Harewood, which might have the most attractive main streets in the county. I'll give it a proper tour with my Pevsner one day, I promise. |
Next Up: Second leg and do all of mid-2016's trails lead through Tadcaster?
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