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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 From Pinhaw, across Craven to Penyghent |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
Yet another misty morning but still pleasant for walking. I left Buckley Green and dropped down towards the reservoir to turn left and pass Ponden Hall (another place with a Brontës association - reputedly the Thrushcross Grange of 'Wuthering Heights'). The farm track continued above the reservoir until a right turn lead sharply down to the reservoir side and over a bridge to the Colne to Haworth road. An indistinct path then climbed up through the paddocks of Dean Fields. The PW then lead into the woods at Crag Bottom, climbing to meet a road. A little way along the road, I turned uphill (right) at Old Crag Bottom farm to ascend Crag Top with good (slightly hazy) views back over the reservoir.
The path then followed a stone wall up to Old Bess Hill where the wall ended and the path continued on as a wide, clear and increasingly marshy track. The path does not visit the Wolf Stones (300 metres to the east) which are named after previous inhabitants of these moors but on a fine day they may be worth a detour for the view. The boggiest part of the track was at a stile over the next fence. From here the path became drier and sandy as I descended to meet another stone wall and follow it down to Further and Nigher Dean Holes (derelict farmhouses). Another field and the path crossed over the top of Lumb Head where Lumb Beck formed a good waterfall dropping over broad rocky shelves. A walled track then lead through pastures to Ickornshaw (too early for the pub again!).
Past Ickornshaw the PW went through fields to bypass a school and housing estate, meeting a minor road. After the charming Gill Bridge, there was some pleasant farmland walking all the way to Lothersdale (except for half a kilometre on a country road). This was my lunch stop and I can recommend it - Lothersdale is an interesting little village (NB. post-office shop for provisions) and the Hare and Hounds Inn is pretty good. Take the chance to walk down the steps from the carpark across the road down to Lothersdale Beck and look along the beck into the mill-race tunnel.
With the inner man satisfied, I passed through more enclosed pastureland and climbed up to the moorland of Elslack Moor. The sandy and dry path lead through heather to the grassy Pinhaw Beacon. The weather had cleared enough (just some high clouds) to give great views both back over Lothersdale and forward to Penyghent. Here I was joined by 4 other trampers - last seen passing my window at Buckley Green.
From the beacon, the PW dropped to a T-junction on a road and followed the northward road (Clogger Lane) for 500 metres. The PW left the lane through a gate for a path by a stone wall through moorland. At a wall-stile a couple of blokes left us to drop down to the youth hostel in Earby. The other 2 blokes and me continued down through the fields and under an old railway line to Thornton-in-Craven and our B&B. That night I had the choice of walking 2 kilometres either to Earby for fish and chips or the other way towards Elslack to a restaurant. I went to the restaurant for a great meal of giant black puddings with an evening stroll back to digest the meal.
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