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WHARFEDALE

STAGE 1

Ilkley to Burnsall

Start	Old Bridge, Ilkley (SE 112 480)
Finish	Burnsall Bridge (SE 032 611)
Distance	13 miles (20.6km)
Total ascent	1033ft (315m)
Total descent	835ft (255m)
Walking time	6-6½ hours
Terrain	An easy start to the Way, largely on good paths, tracks and lanes with no significant climbing; woodland, open pasture
Accommodation	Addingham, Bolton Bridge, Burnsall

This first stretch into Wharfedale presents no real challenges other than coping with a surfeit of beautiful landscapes and joyful walking. For the whole way, the River Wharfe is never far distant, and its easy-going nature is a hint to how the walking might best be undertaken: at a leisurely and gentle pace. There are no significant ascents, and for the most part the route crosses low-lying riverside farmland and woodland.

ILKLEY

A tour of Ilkley makes a fitting overture to the Dales Way. The whole of the way offers beauty (in all its guises) heaped upon beauty, and Ilkley is an ideal introduction, probably unsurpassed as a setting-off point for any of this country’s major walks. It lies near enough to major towns and cities to be easily accessible, and provides a range of accommodation to suit all pockets.

Dominated by the brown dome of Ilkley Moor, with which it is synonymous, Ilkley is a bright, bubbling, attractive town, a destination for walkers from far and wide. It has a considerable history, having been an important centre since the Bronze Age. Known to the Romans as Olicana, it has also been called Olecanon, Illicleia, Hilleclaia, Illelaya, Illeclat, Illeclay, Yelleilaia, Yelkeley and Hekeley. Before the Romans, the land around Ilkley was occupied by the Brigantes, the ancient Celtic tribe whose great kingdom extended roughly to the boundaries of present-day Yorkshire. The Romans built a substantial fort here, and the lines of their roads are still etched across the surrounding moors, indeed many of them will be encountered along the way.

Under the Anglo-Saxons Ilkley became a manor, held for a while by the Archbishop of York and later passed through various ownerships, including serving time as a seat of justice for the great hunting forests of Yorkshire. The manor rolls from the 12th to the 17th centuries still survive and provide interesting reading. One record states that: ‘No tenant shall receive or harbour vaccabund or arrogant lyers but which are known to be borne within this wapentake…’ Nor, the record goes on, are you permitted to house ‘evell condicioned women…’!

By the early 18th century, Ilkley had degenerated into ‘a very mean place…dirty and insignificant…chiefly famous for a cold well, which has done very remarkable cures in scrofulous cases by bathing, and in drinking of it.’ Even so, Ilkley’s fame as a ‘modest’ inland spa brought with it wealth that allowed medieval streets and cottages to be replaced with more spacious houses and thoroughfares. Today, it is a source of much interest for the historian and rambler alike, and a springboard for a host of fine walks, of which the Dales Way is but one.

The Old Bridge, Ilkley; the official start of the Dales Way

Officially, the Dales Way begins beside the Old Bridge spanning the River Wharfe, formerly a packhorse bridge built in the 1670s to replace several previous bridges that failed to stand up to the river. The bridge is located down Stockeld Road, which branches from the A65 on the west side of Ilkley, just before reaching the town centre. If starting in the centre of Ilkley, walk north along New Brook Street, until you can go left through Ilkley Park, then continue to reach the Old Bridge. Walkers arriving by rail should turn into Brook Street, and then continue north into New Brook Street.

Without crossing the bridge, go left onto a track alongside a house and The Old Bridge Garden centre; note the stone bench at the start, for the benefit of those walking the Dales Way. The nearby signpost exaggerates the distance to Bowness a little, as does one for Addingham a little farther on.

The track soon meets the river, here broad, fast and shallow, and follows this until it emerges at a road near the Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club. Go forward along the club’s driveway, following it to the main buildings, and there diving left to a metal kissing-gate. Through the gate, follow a grassy path across a meadow, passing a redundant gate to another metal gate next to a large ash tree.

After this, press on beside a fence to yet another kissing-gate beside a hawthorn beyond which the path continues between fences, and then follows a clear route, at times alongside a narrow stream, finally to emerge once more onto the banks of the Wharfe. Here another redundant kissing-gate heralds a narrow path rising to a footbridge. A little further, from the high point, such as it is, the track descends, travelling along the edge of a small wooded hillock with many glimpses of charming riverside scenes, a characteristic of much of this stage of the walk, and indeed the whole of the Dales Way.

The route rejoins the riverbank after a gate giving into rough, riverside pasture. Eventually, the riverside path runs out to a gate giving onto the old Addingham road, now a quiet back road parallel with the A65. Bear right along the old road as far as Old Lane, and there turn right. The lane leads to a small housing estate, Low Mill Village.

Low Mill is a peaceful retreat of carefully refurbished Industrial Revolution cottages won from the ruins of an old mill on the banks of the Wharfe. Amazingly, the mill seems to have survived the attention of the Luddites, an organisation formed in 1811 during a period of great distress, and opposed to the mechanisation of the textile mills in the industrial centres of the East Midlands, Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, believing it to be a cause of unemployment. In a five-year period of wanton destruction, the Luddites smashed machinery and destroyed the mills that housed them. The first outbreak was at Nottingham and is said to have been inspired by a young apprentice, Ned Ludd. Compared to what followed, that first upsurge was a mere token gesture, leading as it did to far more serious and organised rioting, especially here in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where many people were killed, mills and machinery destroyed, and rioters tried and executed or transported. Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley is set in this troubled time.

Nearby Addingham received its share of rioting, but Low Mill seems to have escaped and now presents an historically interesting interlude early in the walk.

Follow the road through Low Mill and continue on the other side to the end of an old lane (Low Mill Lane). Continue straight on, passing a row of cottages and the Old Rectory, which adjoins Addingham church, and then turn right (signposted) down a flight of steps to an old packhorse bridge, the parishioners’ route to the church. Carry on into the churchyard, there turning left to pass the church, and following its access path out towards the village of Addingham. From the old packhorse bridge it is possible to bear left across a field below the church to intercept the footpath and driveway to the church.

Addingham church

Follow the path and driveway away from the church, and as the drive bears left, leave it by branching right beside a stone bench and over another bridge into a ginnel (alleyway) between cottages that leads out onto North Street. Turn right and walk gently uphill into Bark Lane.

ADDINGHAM

Addingham grew largely during the Industrial Revolution, but its greatest claim to fame is that it sheltered Archbishop Wulfhere of York (from 854 to 900), who fled here when the Vikings began their campaign of terror against Christian people in the 9th century.

The village is situated at the Aire Gap on a principal route through the Pennines, and there was a settlement here long before the archbishop’s arrival. It was later known as ‘Long Addingham’ because it was based around three separate locations – the church, the old school area and the green – rather than a single centre like most other villages. Until the advent of the textile industry in the late 18th century, the village developed as a farming community. The last working textile mills closed in the 1970s, although nearby Low Mill opened for wool processing in 1999.

Communication links improved vastly with the arrival through the village in 1888 of the Ilkley to Skipton railway (which closed in 1966).

There has been a church in Addingham for over 1100 years. The present building, set in an open field, has nave roof, arcade and chancel dating from the 15th century, with a gallery of 1756. The church is dedicated to St Peter and is one of a few in this region with a blue-faced clock. This is a fashion started by the old established clockmaking firm of William Potts and Sons of Leeds. Beginning with Bradford cathedral, the firm has since been asked to paint the dials of several clocks. The blue paint for St Peters is a specially mixed colour known as ‘Potts Blue’, it having been discovered that numerals in gold leaf are even more legible on a blue background than on black.

As the road bends, leave it by branching right, down steps, heading back to the Wharfe. Ignore the footbridge on the right, to Beamsley, and continue upriver. From this point, there is a fine view across intervening fields to Beamsley Beacon. When the ongoing path forks, branch right to return to the riverbank. Press on to another small mill redevelopment at High Mill, which for a moment deflects the route away from the river. Just beyond High Mill the route enters the site of Olicana caravan park. Follow the main drive until, at a signpost, you can turn right to return to a Wharfeside path.

Soon, through a gate, the way leaves the caravan site and goes forward across two pastures beyond which the path rises gently onto the top of a wooded slope, and then to a stile giving onto a narrow path above the river. From the end of the path the route descends steeply back to the riverside grounds of Low Park.

Low Park was once part of the parkland grounds of Farfield Hall. From this stretch of the river, where fishermen try to catch trout or grayling, there are splendid views to the wooded hillside of Beamsley Beacon. The beacon commands the surrounding countryside as a beacon should, and as one of a chain of bonfires was used in medieval times to signal events across the north of England.

The Wharfeside path is never in doubt and requires little description. It leads eventually to a ladder-stile spanning a wall, and then upfield to a low step-stile beyond which the path rises through a small copse to steps leading up to the B6160. Cross the road with care and go through a gate opposite to the rear of the Farfield Friends Meeting House.

Farfield Friends Meeting House

Farfield Friends Meeting House is one of the earliest Quaker meeting houses, and is still largely in its original form. It has not been in regular use since the early 19th century.

Walk around the meeting house to follow the access drive to Lobwood House for a few strides. Immediately after a gate, leave the access by branching right onto a permissive path over a through-stile (signposted for Bolton Bridge). Over the stile, keep to the wall on the right, heading down the farm access towards the B6160. Just on reaching the B-road, go left over a stile in a corner, and then pleasantly across two pastures to a gate and stile giving onto a short path leading down to the B-road. Take great care against approaching traffic, and cross to the right-hand side once a narrow and intermittent footpath appears there.

Keep along the B-road to a point about 100m before the roundabout junction with the A59, and there leave the road by turning right through a gate and crossing a footbridge to follow a path through a small area of scrubland, after which you pass beneath the A59 road bridge. Keep on across a small paddock to walk alongside the gable of Ferry House, going up steps to meet the former A59 near the original Bolton Bridge. A short way to the left lies the Devonshire Arms Hotel, a bar and tea room.

The Devonshire Arms Hotel as we see it today (tea room nearby) was built in the early 17th century, although there would have been a place of hospitality on this site for much longer than that given the trade that would have focused on the domain of Bolton Priory.

It came into the ownership of the 4th Duke of Devonshire in 1753 as part of the Bolton Abbey Estate. It was further developed by the 5th Duke, a man well ahead of his time, who realised the importance of visitors to the area and ensured many miles of footpaths were established so that visitors could admire the splendid views. The area attracted poets and artists alike, including Wordsworth and Turner.

During the 19th century, the Royal Family would stay at Bolton Abbey for grouse shoots and the Devonshire Arms, which was often used for hospitality, expanded, so that by 1840 it could stable 20 horses and four carriages.

Canine fun in the River Wharfe

Go through a metal gate opposite and onto a riverside path (signposted for Bolton Priory). Keep on to a metal kissing-gate, where the priory comes fully into view, and from the gate continue along a green path that crosses a wide riverside pasture and then rejoins the riverbank. Now simply parallel the river to the bridge that spans the Wharfe close to the priory.

BOLTON ABBEY OR BOLTON PRIORY?

Wayfarers travelling up the Wharfe may be a little confused by the proliferation of signs pointing to ‘Bolton Abbey’ or ‘Bolton Priory’, and perhaps wonder if there are two buildings here. This is not so – the village is called Bolton Abbey, but the monastic ruins overlooking the River Wharfe are those of Bolton Priory, although they are often referred to as Bolton Abbey.

Bolton Abbey remains; still an impressive building

There are two possible explanations for how this came about, although there is no evidence for either being correct. Firstly, in medieval times priories were not as important or as rich as abbeys, and so it is possible that a canon, wanting to make a better impression in London or York, spoke of the ‘abbey’ rather than the ‘priory’. The second possible explanation is simpler, namely, that when the railway first came to the region, a mistake was made on the London–Midland Railway timetable, and the name Bolton Abbey has stuck ever since.

Cross the footbridge spanning the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey (there are stepping stones nearby, but they are precarious and rarely passable) and immediately go left, taking the lower of two paths. The lower route cuts across riverside pasture – our first taste of the Wharfe’s true left bank – and follows the base of a slope and a line of oak trees to a gate. Beyond, a path continues more clearly, directly above the river, to which it shortly diverts, and then heads upriver.

Stepping stones across the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey

The path stays with the river for a while before climbing into the wooded slopes above to a children’s adventure play area, then to follow a route through stands of beech, oak, holly and sycamore. Keep an eye open for a ‘money’ tree – a fallen tree into which people have hammered coins. They have no mystique or legendary significance, so far as I can tell.

The ongoing path undulates and finally emerges briefly onto Storiths Lane. Turn left and cross Pickles Beck by ford or footbridge, and immediately go left on a path heading back towards the river, to another path going right through a gate and onto a broad path leading to the Wooden Bridge at Cavendish Pavilion. Cross the bridge (though there is a perfectly acceptable alternative route following, and then climbing above, the true left bank of the Wharfe, meeting up with the original line at the aqueduct just south of Barden Bridge).

The coming of the railway in 1888 and the motor car in the early 20th century placed new demands on the Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Bridge, so the Cavendish Pavilion was built by the riverside to provide refreshments, and is now a popular place for visitors of all ages.

Tea and snacks are available throughout the year from 10am (www.cavendishpavilion.co.uk), and with so much attractive scenery, pleasant circular walks, nature trails and an abundance of nearby parking, it is inevitably a honeypot that on fine weekends swarms with visitors quite like nowhere else along the way until you reach Bowness. A small shop here sells a variety of maps, booklets, sweets etc, and used to levy a small toll for entering the woods, which are private, and its pathways permissive only.

Turn right on crossing the bridge, heading to the gated entrance to Strid Wood. As you enter Strid Wood, follow the broad track ahead and basically keep going. There are several colour-coded trails (originally laid out in the 19th century by the vicar of Bolton), but continue following this trail, ignoring deviations left and right, until you reach an information board close to the Strid Gorge, where the river has taken on a new lease of life. A short diversion is necessary to inspect the Strid proper, but take care as the rocks are very slippery.

STRID WOOD

You don’t have to be a trained naturalist to recognise immediately that Strid Wood is somewhere quite special, and almost certainly unique. It will be a rare occasion if you have the woods to yourself, for their heavily laden beauty and powerful natural qualities draw people from far and near to potter about among moss-covered grottoes, banks of fern, trees, rock formations and cascading water. Strid Wood is magnificent at all times of the year, but exceptional in spring and autumn, the one when the many wild flowers that colonise this narrow sanctum are bursting through; the other when the burnished bronze colours are at their most intense.

In the 16th century, the forests of Skipton and Knaresborough met here at the River Wharfe, and it used to be said that a squirrel could travel all the way between the two towns without touching the ground. Strid Wood’s position in a deep gorge made it unsuitable as farmland, and so protected it from the tree clearances that occurred on the surrounding land.

In Strid Woodland, an SSSI of importance

Not surprisingly, in 1985 the wood was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) under the terms of a management agreement with the Nature Conservancy Council, for it contains the largest area of acidic oak woodland and the best remnant of oak wood pasture in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Being an upland site favours the native sessile oak, which can be identified by the lack of a stalk supporting the acorns. Unlike the English, or pedunculate oak, the sessile oak can thrive on the wetter, less fertile acidic soils of the north.

Strid Wood Conservation Area is renowned for its wealth of plants and animals. Most of the trees are broadleaved, either sycamore or beech, the largest of which are between 250 and 300 years old. In addition, there is about 10 per cent ash, 6 per cent birch and a small number of oak. The ornithologist will discover as many as 62 species of nesting bird, while naturalists interested in lichen will find Strid Wood to be unrivalled in Yorkshire, with over 80 species, twice as many as elsewhere. Other surveys list 5 bat species, 97 species of fungi, 40 of Mollusca, 41 of liverworts and 98 mosses, many rare or very local in distribution. Altogether a remarkable place.

THE STRID GORGE