Appletreewick to Kettlewell

Wednesday 15th August 2007

11 miles walking

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

Much to our surprise it wasn't raining when we awoke. Breakfast wasn't until 9am; it didn't seem too long to wait, but the Sherpa Van arrived whilst we were still eating, so we had to clean our teeth and pack our bags rather quickly. However it was useful to have met the driver who would be transporting our luggage along the path.

We left the New Inn around 9.30am and started off by heading back to the river. The visibility was much better than yesterday and the countryside was beautiful. The guidebook says 'Many consider, with some justification, that Burnsall, squatting comfortably beneath the gritstone moors of Burnsall and Thorpe fells, is all that a Dales village should be, with its meandering river, five-arched bridge, village green, inn, church and Tudor grammar school with diamond-paned windows.' It is certainly a pretty place, and we walked up the road to look at the Tudor grammar school (now the village primary school) and the church before cutting back down to the river and continuing along the Dales Way.

We walked past Wilfred Scar and Loup Scar (scene of a murder in the 18th Century) then crossed the river by a suspension bridge. The suspension bridge was built to replace nearby stepping stones, but the river was so full that the stepping stones were not visible. It started to rain heavily soon after this, though it had eased again by the time we passed Linton Church on the other side of the river and then arrived at Linton Falls, even more spectacular than usual because the river was so full. We crossed the footbridge to photograph the falls, then continued along the river and up to Grassington.

Grassington is undoubtedly a very pretty place but it was full of visitors all (apparently!) looking for lunch, so we had some difficulty finding a cafe with space for us and our boots/wet weather gear etc. However, by walking up Main Street away from the car park we found Elliott's and we had a lovely meal there. The rain eased whilst we were eating lunch and the weather then got better and better for the rest of the day.

After lunch we pottered back into Grassington to admire its 'quaint and picturesqueness' then we climbed up out of the village, being followed by a group of walkers who - thankfully- went a different way as we got up onto the moor. There was very attractive limestone scenery everywhere, with bits of limestone pavement, Conistone Dib (a dry valley) and Conistone Pie ('a small knoll crowned by a large rocky outcrop'). Helen eventually got reception on her mobile phone, so was able to receive and send a text message to Tom, now safely home. Then we descended to Kettlewell.

Kettlewell is a very pretty village, made even better by the fact that, completely by chance, we had arrived in the middle of the annual scarecrow festival - and the sun was shining! We admired some of the scarecrows and had an icecream then found our rooms at the Blue Bell Inn and went out again to look at more of the scarecrows - they are everywhere and many of them are very amusing. We had a pleasant evening meal in the bar of the Blue Bell Inn.

Following day