Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. Terry Marsh
Cross a meadow (diagonally left to a stile by a gate) and the corner of the next field to pursue a clear route across more fields eventually to reach the Tees. Now follow the river, upstream, but before the broad farm track underfoot reaches the Middleton road, bear right with the river to Bridge End Steps. Turn right up into Middleton to complete the walk.
WALK EIGHT
Bowes Moor
| Start point | Bowes NY996134 |
| Distance | 16.7km (10½ miles) |
| Height gain | 205m (675ft) |
| Grade | moderately demanding |
| Time | 5+hrs |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey OL31 (North Pennines: Teesdale and Weardale) |
| Getting there | Parking opposite Bowes village hall, and roadside parking on nearby road to Scotch Corner |
| After-walk refreshment | Ancient Unicorn pub in Bowes |
Making use of both the Pennine Way and the Bowes (Pennine Way) Loop, this walk starts out in the agreeable company of the River Greta before heading up onto the grass and heather moors to the north, known locally as Bowes Moor. There is an openness about the moors that allows extensive views, which in turn bring a great sense of freedom, while the grassy ridge that links the two arms of the Pennine Way is a joy to follow.
Striding out across the top of Bowes Moor
Bowes has long served travellers crossing the Pennines; it sits at an obvious gap (Stainmore) that facilitates an east–west link. The Romans had a fort here (Lavatrae), although all its masonry went into building Bowes Castle in the 12th century. This was a lawless and unsettled region, and the castle was intended to bring some form of regulation.
The only pub in the village, The Ancient Unicorn, is said to be haunted. This 17th-century coaching inn was visited by Charles Dickens, who found inspiration in the village academy (Shaws), which he immortalised as Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby. In the north-east corner of the churchyard is the grave of William Shaw, headmaster of Shaws Academy. Dickens met Shaw, who is generally accepted to be the prototype of Wackford Squeers, the brutal headmaster at Dotheboys Hall. In the south-east part of the churchyard is the grave of George Ashton Taylor, who died while a pupil at Shaws Academy. Dickens said that he thought it was on this spot that he conceived the idea of Smike, the boy who ran away from Dotheboys Hall.
The Route
Walk up through the village street as far as the church, and then turn left into Back Lane (signed for Bowes Castle). The castle, which soon appears, stands in the north-west corner of the Roman fort.
Immediately on passing the castle, leave the lane and turn right at a gate/stile, and then go through another gate onto a signed path for the Pennine Way. Follow this as it runs around the castle boundary, through a dip and over a wall-gap stile and on across two fields to a narrow stile beside an ash tree. Keep on alongside a wall at a field boundary, cross another stile, press on beside a fence and shortly cross the top end of a sunken track and the field beyond to a lane at a Pennine Way signpost.
Turn left, up the lane, and then keep on past Swinholme Farm, beyond which the route descends to cross the River Greta by a footbridge. On the other side, cross a meadow to a gate, and just after this join a lane to go past Lady Myres Farm. The route then continues as a rough track, and runs around West Charity Farm to a footbridge spanning Sleightholme Beck. A good path now leads round towards East Mellwaters, which conceals a considerable history of farming in the area, probably going back as much as 5500 years, but today offers specialist accommodation and holidays for less-abled people, for whom a network of trails has been constructed. Follow one such as it runs from a lane near a single-arch bridge and follows the River Greta all the way to the limestone feature known as God’s Bridge.
Bowes Castle
God’s Bridge, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), is a natural limestone bridge formed by a process of cave development in the limestone beneath the river bed. It is the best example in Britain of a natural bridge formed in this way. The SSSI covers a portion of the river above and below the bridge where shallow cave development by water erosion is still taking place.
Cross the bridge and walk up through obsolete railway abutments (the line closed in the 1960s) to pass a nearby cottage. Follow a track up to the A66, where a path diverts left to an underpass. On the other side, turn right through a metal gate and walk across to Pasture End Farm. On reaching the farm, turn left along its boundary (Pennine Way sign for Clove Lodge) and walk up onto the moor. When the boundary wall changes direction, leave it and strike across open moorland.
Initially the way is not abundantly clear, but a path soon materialises and now leads northwards onto Ravock Moor, crossing Rove Gill and continuing through heather to the pile of stones that marks the site of Ravock Castle. Any aspirations to castle-like status are misplaced; this was probably never more than a hut or sheep enclosure, but its setting is magnificent, with the broad depression of Deep Dale ahead and the onward moor rising easily.
God’s Bridge
Descend to a prominent hut/shelter and a footbridge spanning Deepdale Beck. Pass through a gate on the other side, and then simply walk straight up the moor, parallel with a wall on the right.
Just before reaching the high point of Cotherstone Moor, turn right through a field gate that gives onto a broad track running eastwards, initially through reeds. To the north-east, a trig pillar marks the top of West Hare Crag, which can be reached by continuing first with the Pennine Way to a stile at Race Yate Rigg, and then crossing rough ground. Return the same way. The crag marks the highest point hereabouts.
Ravock Castle and Deep Dale
Continue eastwards across the moor on an improving track that eventually leads to a gate at a wall-end. Here, the Pennine Way moves away in a south-westerly direction, but is not always clear underfoot. A surer guide is to turn right at the gate (do not pass through it) and pick up a clear, narrow path descending to cross Hazelgill Beck. When the accompanying wall changes direction, move to a south-westerly direction and aim across reedy ground for the conspicuous, isolated farm at Levy Pool, set in the middle of a stand of trees. A footbridge gives onto a track around the building and then out along a stony track.
The ongoing track passes through a gate near the end of a surfaced lane. Here, branch right on the Pennine Way at West Stoney Keld Farm. Just before reaching the farm buildings, turn left through a field gate and walk alongside a wall. Turn with the wall when it changes direction, but then drop obliquely left across a low slope to cross a corner of rough pasture towards a fence. Walk up beside the fence to a gated gap-stile. Cross the ensuing field towards the left-hand side of a barn; a short way on, another wall-stile gives into a field, across which a path leads out to join a lane.
Turn right to follow the lane, and when it ultimately divides near a compound of radio masts, bear right, descending, towards Bowes. The lane feeds into the western end of the village street, which is now followed back to the start.
NORTH WEST DALES – EDEN VALLEY AND THE HOWGILLS
‘Watercut’ on the High Way above the Eden valley (Walk 11)
Possessing a geological affinity with the low fells around Windermere in Lakeland, and owning little of the moorland bog usually associated with the high summits of the Pennines, the Howgills are unique, a diversion from the main thrust of the north–south Pennines. Yet they lie just a short distance west of the Pennine watershed, with only the bulk of Baugh Fell to intervene.