Hawes to Aysgarth

Monday 10th April 2006

13 miles

Cllick here for all our photos from this walk.

We had an excellent breakfast at Fair View House and met Jeremy from Discovery Travel when he arrived to transport our bags just as we were leaving; we chatted about our respective duaghters who were both about to do A levels. We then went shopping for lunch, so it was 10ish before we left Hawes - paradoxically heading back to the north west along the Pennine Way. We crossed the fields to Hardraw and paid our 2 x £2 to access Hardraw Force via the Green Dragon Inn. It was quite a spectacular waterfall; apparently at 98 feet it is the longest single drop waterfall in England.

We passed Simonstone Hall and through Sedbusk and Litherskew then stopped for lunch (bacon and cheese turnovers - delicious!) just before Skell Gill. We took a very short diversion to Mill Gill Force, a very similar waterfall to Hardraw Force, and actually I think I preferred it.

We cut across the fields to Askrigg, which is where they filmed much of 'All Creatures Great and Small' - it's a very attractive village. We stopped for an ice-cream; an indication of how much the weather had improved since yesterday!

We crossed the fields to the River Ure and followed it most of the way to Aysgarth, though we had to make occasional diversions because of flooding. Eventually we crossed the river and Heather Cottage came into view; however we followed the 'official' instructions to the end, walking along the very attractive banks of the river to the old mill, then up into Aysgarth and back to Heather Cottage. Angela and Peter welcomed us warmly and we were greeted like long lost friends when we went back to the George & Dragon; we had another lovely meal.