Otley to Pannal 17/06/17

10.9 miles, via Farnley, Lindley Bridge, Braythorn, Stainburn, Almscliffe Crags,
 North Rigton, and Burn Bridge.

Finally, the high season amblings can get underway as attention shifts to the lands north of the Wharfe for most of the summer, and it seems to have taken a long time to get here having first trailed it at the start of May, and having been plotted for 2016 before my attention turned elsewhere, only getting going as the last weekend of Spring arrives, promising to bring a day of unbroken sunshine with it. So naturally there's a mood of disappointment in the air as my arrival in Otley is greeted by overcast skies that seem far too common in Wharfedale, with our course being set from the bus station at 9.15am with a very long day ahead of us, starting off down Mercury Row to reveal more of those ancient side streets that deserve a more detailed explore, and crossing Kirkgate to take a circuit around the Parish church of All Saints as it hasn't had an up close look on my previous visits, and also finding the Bramhope Tunnel monument in the yard, commemorating the 24 men killed during its construction. Then follow the passage that leads across to Westgate to wander on to the riverside through the yard of a presently disused mill complex, arriving on the high bank above the Wharfe below the shade of many trees and starting the eastwards tack to drop down into the Manor Garth gardens, where a hard path is joined, leading us to probably the best spot to get sight of Otley Bridge, stretching long and low across the wide and placid river. Cross over and ender Wharfemeadows Park, forming a garden apron in front of the riverside terrace before we reach the weir which livens the river up a bit, and beyond the play area we move away from the bankside to find the way to the northeast, passing us through the town facing gates of Farnley Hall, before turning away from the parkland and through the suburban enclave of the Riverside Estate to join the B6451 Farnley Lane to push us out of town and on into North Yorkshire. General gloom means the view back to The Chevin and its companions aren't that great, and so we press on , accompanied by the long wall of Farnley Park, longtime seat of the Fawkes family, where no good views are forthcoming until we meet the estate houses and the walled garden, framed by the hills to the south, but the house will remain unseen as we go on, obscured by a thick woodland that keeps on all the way to the north entrance, and thus interest has to come from elsewhere, like the tiny Farnley church, peeking out from across distant fields, and the complex at Home farm, which has had about as impressive residential makeover as any 18th century farmstead in this county.

The Bramhope Tunnel memorial, Otley.

Otley Weir and Bridge, on the Wharfe.

Farnley Hall, Gardens and Estate Houses.

Home Farm, Farnley.

Farnley village, or maybe hamlet, doesn't seem to have that many residences, or much else for that matter, but manages to be seat to a church and a tiny school, with the rising lane through it giving us an early reveal of today's major target, Almscliffe Crag, far off on the horizon, and also a lot of haymaking in the neighbouring fields, and as we move onto the heavily shaded lane down towards Lindley Bridge, keeping safe from the tractors pounding back and forth becomes a priority. Its a steep decent down into the valley of the Washburn, and despite getting a good look over to the Lindley Wood plantation, the reservoir and dam below it hide from view pretty efficiently, remaining unseen as we roll over Lindley Bridge above the river and the trout hatchery, previously encountered on last year's long Washburn trail, before we start the ascent up the north side, where a local walker catches me up and burns me off with great ease, which is embarrassing. Onwards into virgin territory as we gain fresh views over the river and southward into the eastern course of the Wharfe, joining Pill White lane to gain a lot more altitude among the fields, pausing for an early lunch break on a convenient bench before choosing to eschew the lower field paths and to climb higher on the road, some 80m above the Washburn to get more elevated views. It's a familiar sort of view down the Wharfe, with Riffa Wood prominent and central, and Almscliffe Crag comes that bit closer to our trail, but the view north is fresh, over to the bulk of Stainburn Forest, and the fields of really not that much which seem to stretch for miles and miles in this quarter, and we set on eastwards to meet the B6161 Otley Road (lost count of how many of these I've encountered), for a briefly terrifying walk on a vergeless road with too much traffic passing over a blind summit. Back to quieter tracks as we hit the descending Gale Lane down to Robins Hill farm, which gradually degenerates to farm track and rough green path as is heads down to cross West Beck, at the bottom of a much larger valley than it needs, ascending through a lot of tree cover to meet the hamlet of Braythorn, emerging by the old school house and tacking south among the loose collection of houses and farmsteads to soon find ourselves out in thou countryside again. The mist still hangs heavy over the Chevin and Caley Park to the south, but we soon find a more interesting site up close as we move into the yard of St Mary's church, a tiny Norman chapel removed from the rest of the village and having a feel, both inside and out of St Mary's Lead, though this feels a whole lot more hospitable place, and it's good to take a few moments inside to take the edge off the breeze that has bitten hard on this morning.

The Washburn at Lindley Bridge.

An elevated Wharfedale view, Riffa Wood at centre.

West Beck's outsize valley.

St Mary's Stainburn.

It's field walk onwards down to the village proper, which also seems to be a collection of farmsteads and houses, rather picturesquely around the twisting Low Lane that wanders all over the contours of this particular hillside, located directly to the north of Riffa Wood to give us some local context, and our attention will wander down there and to the high fields of The Banks until we get sight of Almscliffe Crag, finally appearing close up on the trail. It's still a long walk to get there, of course, as Low lane stretches on a lot further than the map would seem to suggest, but as we rise to pass Townend Farm, the unrefined joy comes on as the cloud cover finally burns off and the day of unbroken sunshine finally comes on, only 2 and a half hours after we started out as if the day knew that we wanted some good weather as we approached Lower Wharfedale's gritstone sentinel. It looms large as the sole pointy of interest as the road draws us on towards it, looking particularly massive despite being only 30m or so prominent above the surrounding fields, and even at a distance, its popularity is obvious as people can be seen atop the crags, which is good news as a summiting is essential on a visit here, and a climb to the top was not something that was planned for the day. Arrive by the carpark and hit the field walk up to the rough apron on the crag, high and unapproachable from this side, but there will be no need to rock climb here as paths lead around to the south, as the passage between the pair of highest rocks has been deliberately blocked, and the many visitors are to be avoided as the massive lumps of Millstone Grit are admired and the view down to Wharfedale is absorbed. A lunch spot is required, to be found on the leeward side, facing east where the best views is had, down the Crimple valley towards the viaduct, with Harrogate hiding from view almost completely, and then the top must be attained, which still requires a careful choice of route and a bit of a scramble, so we can get the full 360 degrees which gives us sights from all parts near and far, though the view to the north is disappointing, as Stainburn Moor rises to obscure all sight lines towards Nidderdale. Still, this is Wharfedale's sentinel, and definitely a place to be loved intensely, and as I appear to be dressed the part, I'm asked to pose for a photograph atop the rocks, as 'a proud Yorkshireman in God's Country', and its slightly embarrassing to have to admit to my photographer that I'm actually an interloper and full-time tourist. There's still a lot of today to go though, like 3+ hours, so the path east must be re-joined, descending back down the level of the agricultural fields, where the crag's eastern face can be revealed as it least interesting, but framing it with some trees and gorse bushes can give it a more interesting aspect.

Almscliffe Crag from Low Lane.

Wharfedale's Gritstone Sentinel.

One of many Summit views, the Way to Come.

The Crag, looking back.

Having spent a solid 50 minutes in the precinct of Almscliffe Crag, its important to get the pace up again, as a field walk sits us atop the ridge which the crags dwell, favouring the Wharfedale side as we get looks down towards Rawden Hill and Healthwaite Hill on either side of the river, dropping down to meet Crag Lane on the edge of North Rigton, one of the very few commuter villages that have grown in this space between Wharfedale and Harrogate. The apparent under-population of this part of North Yorkshire probably need more scholarly study than I could provide, and anyway, a landscape that isn't full of burgeoning suburbia should be right up my alley, seeing as how much I complain about it, and amazingly, North Rigton is a village that wins me over very rapidly, despite having had increasing amounts of development coming its way since the 1930s. It's all been grown in a sympathetic style, of matching stone that looks particularly good in the sunshine, and the main drag along Church Hill is presented particular well, facing the austere and Victorian church of St John the Evangelist, and it seems that village has collectively unleashed its creative and colourful side for it Flowerpot Fiesta. The local kids, and adults I'd assume, have created characters of popular media and other designs in flowerpots, and these are displayed throughout the village, in such a variety that I'm particularly impressed, wandering on down Hall Green Lane, as far as the primary school so as many as possible can be seen, that's the wrong way so steps must be retraced, past The Square & Compass twice, each time looking a tempting watering hole that's particularly attractive on a hot day like this. back on track as we move on to the top of the village, still admiring the flowerpot creation before departing Rigton Hill and head on east along Beeston's Lane, a quiet track that leads out onto the ridge walk again, giving us more views over the Crimple valley and moving us on the Rigton Grange before the path becomes a lot rougher and disappears below tree cover for a while, emerging to a field boundary walk and rising above a fish pond behind the grange farm. Again take in the views over the Crimple valley, and move on along the field paths, finally gaining enough distance to get a straight look back to Almscliffe Crag, prominent way back along the ridge, and confirming that the projected sightlines that we gained up there were indeed showing the path to come, and soon rolling up behind Horn Bank farm, where views can favour the Wharfedale side again, and we can look forwards to the bulk of Follifoot Ridge, immediately identifiable and suddenly rather close, off to the east.

The Square & Compass, North Rigton.

Flowerpot Fiesta = Admirable Creativity.

The Crimple Valley.

Follifoot Ridge.

Our time on the high lands must soon come to an end, despite being only 150m up as we move on, getting a sightline straight down to Crimple viaduct and Pannal as we shift downhill to the Crimple valley, meeting the edge of the plantation known as The Warren, and touching base with the Harrogate Ringway, but as that's a walking feature yet to come, we'll be doing our level best not to follow it, despite it leading in the exact same direction we are travelling. So we detour across a rough field and along a couple of field boundaries to find our way out onto Brackenthwaite Lane, which takes us on to the Burn Bridge Lane and the outer edge of Greater Harrogate, and the houses along here already look appealing, and once over the River Crimple, finally gaining its identity as its many becks converge, we meet the suburb of Burn Bridge and its immediately appealing pub, the Black Swan. A bit of a river walk might have been expected as we pace the Crimple-side down Malthouse Lane, but we are in the firm grip of suburbia down here and there is no waterside aspect to be had at all, as developments have grown with their backs to the river and there are no appealing sightlines to be had either here or along Crimple Meadows, a road name that tells you how much has been lost down here. So I'm back to complaining about suburbia, which is a resumption of normal service, but at least we've still got some playing fields to provide greenery, and at the very least, this half of Pannal is not all a suburban nightmare, as there's a much older heart to it, with a villa, farmstead and Medieval church to be soon found as we drop out on Main Street, and it's at the latter of these that we will wrap the first section of today, arriving at the front of St Robert of Knaresborough's at 2.15pm. This is because today's trail is going to divide into two completely different halves, and the trip to Almscliffe Crags shouldn't be considered a prelude to later portion as we start out on the Harrogate Ringway, just as the Ringway shouldn't be considered the post-script to a visit to Wharfedale's sentinel rock, and thus we end this post looking like an 11 mile burn was done in good time, but the truth of the day is that we will be pushing on to close to 18 miles despite the record not indicating this. There's a whole new long distance trail to look forward to as a brief watering break is enjoyed, not that 20 miles can really be considered as all that long, though it's still too much for me for single day, and the burst for today was always to go down as planned, as otherwise an extra trip would have to have been made out here to do a 7 mile trip that would have been more expensive than is really necessary. So gird the loins, there's three more hours to go on a very hot day indeed...

The Crimple and the Black Swan, Burn Bridge.

St Robert of Knaresborough, Pannal.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2822.1 miles
2017 Total: 257.1 miles
Up Country Total: 2577.8 miles
Solo Total: 2565.8 miles

 Next Up: The Ringway follows, Immediately...