An apt title for this piece might be A Tale of Two Walks, or – more accurately – The Same Walk Twice, though that doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Anyway: I put the walk in the July-September programme to act as a reccy of the route I had volunteered to act as back-marker for in the Richmond Walking and Book Festival 2024.
On 15 August: With overcast skies and a poor forecast just 4 of us drove to Bowes on a damp and breezy morning. We paused first at the impressive 12th century keep of Henry 2nd’s Castle on the site of a Roman Fort, then West along the Pennine Way path leading up the shallow valley of the River Greta which becomes the Stainmore Pass. With the A66 above us and to the right we walked into increasingly unpleasant wind-driven rain, eventually reaching the remarkable God’s Bridge across the river. This is a naturally created structure: a massive limestone slab spanning the Greta, part of what was once of an underground cave system through which the river flowed.
Now turning North, we passed through a tunnel under the busy A66 and, leaving the traffic noise behind, began a steady damp plod up onto Cotherstone Moor. After about 2 km we reached the welcome shelter of a large shooting hut in the dip of Sled Dale where we enjoyed a comfortable, dry lunchbreak. All too soon though it was back into the strong crosswind, rain and mirk and on up to the high point of the walk at Race Yate where we turned East and, with the wind finally behind us, followed a grassy shooting track which, in part was boarded over with very wet and slippery woodenplanks.
With the rain easing off we turned South at Ladyfold Rigg and dropped down and across Deepdale Beck to reach the amazing heather-thatch roofed buildings of Levy Pool Farm. The steepness of pitch of the main farmhouse roof is extraordinary and well worth seeing. Restoration of the site appears to be a stalled project following a fire, but it is to be hoped that it can be completed in order to save this hidden gem.
On through walled fields (rather than open moorland) we reached the tarmac road which we followed down to Bowes, with, on either side, the remains of an old military site at one time used to store and eventually destroy chemical weapons. We noted many signs in fields as we passed, warning of the risk of toxic and explosive waste but the cattle contentedly grazing there didn’t appear to have been informed...
Moving forward to 28th September: I back-marked the same walk on the last Saturday of the Festival. Informatively led by Ed Chicken, we had a really nice friendly group of 12 including several SOC members.
The only difference worthy of note was the weather. Two days earlier all the Festival walks had been cancelled due to torrential rain. On the 28th though we had glorious sunshine all day, and wonderful panoramic views from the higher points of the walk. We stopped at the same shooting hut for lunch except, this time, we carried the chairs outside and sat in the sun.
A very enjoyable walk for all.
Richard Wright.