Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: South and West. Dennis Kelsall
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Counting sheep at Lee Gate Farm (Walk 21)
Managing the meadows in this way allowed them to develop a rich herbage of spring and summer flowers, which in turn encouraged a diversity of both insects and birds. In some areas they remain a delight to behold, but such practices do not sit well alongside pressures to improve productivity. Reseeding and the use of fertilisers and herbicides might double the yield of grass, but the wild flowers that once grew there all but disappear within a season. Many farmers are trying to redress the balance between efficiency and environmental conservation, but the overriding concern must still be the need to earn an income.
PLANTS AND WILDLIFE
Despite the human influences, the environment of the Dales supports a great diversity of habitats whose individual characteristics are broadly governed by altitude and the underlying geology.
Much of the upland is underlain by grits and other impervious rocks and covered by wet blanket bog, where cottongrass, sphagnum and purple moor grass pervade, with heather, bilberry and heath rush dominating where the ground is drier. Many of the better-drained upland heaths are actively managed as grouse moors, where the old growth of heather is periodically burnt off to encourage young shoots. The moors are perhaps at their most attractive during late summer when the heather blazes in a rich swathe of purple. The limestone grasslands on the other hand are best in spring, when an amazing variety of small flowers such as buttercup, vetch, rock rose, cranesbill and campion speckle colour across the landscape. The small patches of woodland too are also most appealing in the springtime, when bluebells, ramson and wood anemones abound.
While the limestone pavements themselves are almost devoid of vegetation, the deeper clefts between the clints offer soil, moisture and protection from grazing. Ferns are amongst the most common plants here, but very occasionally a hawthorn might just escape the attentions of sheep into maturity. On the floors of the dales, the unimproved hay meadows contain a rich mixture of grasses as well as an abundance of flowers and are at their best around June. And even if you do not venture off the lanes, you will be charmed by the mass of flowers that sprout from the crevices of walls and underneath hedgerows.
Such an abundance of flowers supports many insects, of which butterflies and moths are most likely to attract attention. The relatively cool climate of the uplands precludes an abundance of species, but amongst those commonly seen are tortoiseshell, peacock, green-veined white, common blue and green hairstreak.
Birds are the most obvious wildlife throughout the dales, and even the most unobservant bird watcher cannot help noticing them from the highest fells to the depths of the vales. Red grouse, golden plover and curlew are common across the moors, with merlin and even peregrines hunting for food. Skylarks hover high above the upland pastures, and lapwing, snipe and fieldfare are all to be found. The woodlands, too, harbour many small songbirds, and you will often hear – if not actually spot – a woodpecker. The streams and rivers attract dippers and wagtails as well as sandpipers and oystercatchers.
Apart from the rabbit, which seems to appear just about wherever there is grass, and the grey squirrel, which is earning for itself an increasingly bad press, other mammals are more timid and less easy to spot, although, be assured, they are very much there. Roe deer, hare, fox and badger are amongst the larger animals likely to be encountered, and occasionally the native red squirrel might be seen in woodland. The woodmouse, vole and mole are common but shy, and there are several species of bat, which are most in evidence at dusk. Frogs, toads, lizards and even adders also live in the Park.
With such a tremendous variety of landscape within a relatively small area, the Dales offer some of the most satisfying walking to be had in the whole of the country. Its thousands of miles of pathways, tracks and quiet lanes offer endless possibilities for personal exploration, whether it be in gentle riverside strolls or demanding upland treks. The area is criss-crossed by several long distance trails and is also home to the Yorkshire ‘Three Peaks Challenge’, the 23-mile (37km) ascent of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough completed in less than 12 hours. But equally, the charming villages and hamlets strung along the valley bottoms make ideal bases for both short and full-day walks. There are also many opportunities to combine a walk with a visit to one of the local attractions, such as the fine gardens at Parcevall Hall or one of the spectacular show caves, but the greatest appeal for many who come here is undoubtedly the intrinsic natural beauty of the countryside.
Walking along Green Lane to Hanlith (Walk 18)
THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN DALES
This volume covers the southern- and western-facing catchments of the Yorkshire Dales – Wharfedale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Ribblesdale and Dentdale. It is an area of dramatic and contrasting landscape, for it is here that the main outcrop of Great Scar Limestone is revealed. To the north, and in the higher reaches of the hills, this gives way to the overlying distinctive stepped terraces of the Yoredales, while to the south east the darker millstones and sandstones of the South Pennines fringe the National Park.
Each valley has a character subtly different from that of its neighbours, and although none can be said to be truly representative, Wharfedale, together with its tributaries, perhaps more than any other, encapsulates the spirit of the Dales. From the source of the River Wharfe high on Cam Fell to Bolton Abbey, where it leaves the park behind, is a distance of some 30 miles (48km), and it is possible to walk close by the river’s banks for much of the way. Born out of an evocative wildness, the Wharfe tumbles in youthful exuberance between the steep and narrow flanks of Langstrothdale, but then, turning a corner, seems to find a different and more considered purpose. The hills step back to indulge its meandering course through an increasingly bucolic landscape of neatly walled pastures dotted with laithes and small steadings. The high ground encompasses the abrupt and arresting scenery of karst and the wild expanses of the open moors, both encroaching across an indeterminate boundary with the pastoral scene below. Its fickle tributary, the River Skirfare, can bubble boisterously at one point and then disappear completely within a few metres, while the Wharfe itself can swell from an innocuous stream to a thundering torrent after heavy rain.
That same diversity is repeated further west in the hills that give rise to the River Aire, from the gritty moors above Winterburn to the awesome limestone scarps of Malham and Gordale. Like Grassington, the village of Malham must be amongst the most visited of the whole park, and its popularity stems simply from the grand beauty of its setting. The accessibility of Malham Cove, Gordale and Janet’s Foss has put them within reach of almost everyone, and their natural charm has no doubt awakened a love of the countryside in many a child visiting as part of a geography field trip. But, even on the busiest summer weekend, you need not wander far to experience a sense of quiet and freedom.
The River Skirfare sometimes tumbles along its bed at Litton (Walk 16)
With working quarries and a railway that runs its full length, Ribblesdale appears the most workaday of the Dales. Yet even here, it is the loveliness of the scenery that makes the greatest impression. Of all the dales, it is the one that most obviously proclaims an identity in the mountains that enclose it, for here they stand well back and can be viewed with anticipation. And this is the dale intimately linked with the Three Peaks Challenge, which begins and ends at the famous café in Horton. So much is said of them that you might be forgiven for thinking them the three highest in Yorkshire – and while Whernside and Ingleborough most certainly are, Pen-y-ghent, barely 30m lower, only ranks eighth in the list. Despite this handicap, it is perhaps the most striking of all, and, if approached along the Pennine Way from the south, arouses all the expectancy and sense of achievement of a real mountaineering peak.
Dentdale is subtly different from the rest, a valley of hedgerows and occasional trees that lend a greater feeling of warmth and intimacy than the grey stone walls defining the field patterns elsewhere. West-facing, it looks out not onto lowland plains, but the mountains of Cumbria, and there is a sense of seclusion from the rest of the world not experienced in the other dales.