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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 I arrive at Tan Hill Inn |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
Overnight it had been raining, so the morning started along the glistening tarmac of a country road (Brunt Acres Road) for about 1/2 a kilometre until the River Ure was crossed. Wensleydale is the only one of the principal Yorkshire dales that is not named after it's river (Wensley is the name of a village in the valley). There the road was left for a path that lead through fields until it became flag-stoned as it arrived at Hardraw village. I visited Hardraw Force - a 30 metre waterfall situated a short walk behind the Green Dragon Inn. The inn charges a small fee (50p) but the diversion is well worth it to see the highest (above ground) waterfall in England. The natural amphitheatre of the waterfall gorge was often the venue for band contests.
I left the village along a walled drove road that climbed onto a ridge and followed the ridge up for a kilometre to the open moorland. In theory the views from the moorland would be pretty good. However I was soon walking in low clouds - my view was restricted to less than 100 metres around me. I did get a few views through breaks in the clouds across the dale of Hearne Beck to the moorlands of Fossdale Moss.
Lower down the stony path was fairly clear on the ground. Once I had passed over the fell shoulder on Hearne Top, the path became less clear as it wound its way through peat hags in its climb northwards on the ridge to the summit. The path was mostly dry as it went around some patches of wet bog. I stopped for lunch in a patch of heather near the path at a point that I thought was about 1 kilometre from the summit. Resuming the walk, it was less than 100 metres before I reached the summit cairn (a much better and drier place for lunch).
The climb to the Great Shunner Fell summit was over 7 kilometres long and really needed a better day to make it more interesting. On a misty day the only way to gauge progress are a few landmarks - the wall at which you start to climb the main ridge, a tall cairn on rocks at Humesett (below Black Hill Moss), Crag End Beacon and a small tarn halfway between the beacon and the summit.
From the summit, the path lead through some more peat hags, across the hillside and then raced down to meet a walled drove road. Soon the narrow and stony track emerged onto a tarmac road and a short descent to Thwaite village. This was a good place to refresh myself for the climb up Tan Hill.
As I left Thwaite, the cloud cover parted to let in some sunshine - it actually felt a little hot after the coolness of the morning. Rising up through meadows (sometimes muddy), the path lead to Kisdon farmhouse and then contoured along the side of Kisdon Hill on a natural limestone shelf. The going was good and dry with interesting sections through scree, especially over North Gang Scar. The views across and down Swaledale were very pretty. The many wall-stiles made some tight squeezes with my pack.
I soon entered the woodland above Kisdon Force waterfall - worth the detour if you have the time. The woodland was left where a bridge crossed over the River Swale. This route misses out Keld but the little cluster of buildings is also worth the detour (the Catrake Force waterfall just upstream of the hamlet is also worthy of a visit). The Keld Youth Hostel is on the hillside above the village. Here I followed a section of the Coast-to-Coast Walk (been there, done that!) up to the pretty East Gill Force waterfall and East Stonesdale farm. Butt House has a reputation as one of the most hospitable bed and breakfast places in the country - it is even licensed which is good since Keld village has no pub.
The path quickly broke out into rough "out-pasture" and passed over a shoulder of Stonesdale into Birk Dale. Two kilometres later (past Low Brown Hill) the gradually ascending path took a sharp right turn to climb fairly steeply onto Stonesdale Moor. It is recommended that you keep to the path (an old packhorse trail) since there are several unfenced coal pits in the area. The sight of Tan Hill Inn in the distance gave my legs an extra boost of energy and made the last 1.5 kilometres pass quickly.
Tan Hill Inn is the highest inn in Britain at 1732 feet (533 metres). The accommodation there is very good - newly built in 1991, clean and roomy with hot, strong showers (just right to ease tramping aches). By this time the stone cladding on the new section should be wearing enough to make it fit in with the old pub walls. It is also the first pub in England to get a licence to host weddings - a very romantic place for eager trampers to get hitched. Being a Theakston pub just makes it perfect - if you like your beer dark and tasty then Old Peculiar is the beer for you. A quiz night and drinking with a couple of fellow PW trampers made a great evening (good food too!).
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