Nidderdale lies in the eastern fringes of the Yorkshire Dales, but there’s no mistaking where you are. It’s proper Dales country round here – sombre brown moor tops on high, green valley bottoms below, dotted with stone barns and striped with stone walls.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The farming hamlet of Middlesmoor stands high over the upper reaches of the dale, a tight-knit cluster of houses along cobbled laneways, a decent pub in the Crown, and a church where generations of Middlesmoorians sleep with a memorable view to greet them on Resurrection Day – the whole green dale dipping away towards the silver comma of Gouthwaite Reservoir.
It was blue sky above me and rain showers chasing each other across the hills as I set out from Middlesmoor, barked off enthusiastically along the Nidderdale Way by a brace of muddy spaniels. The stony walled track of In Moor Lane, a winding old packhorse route, took me up over In Moor, and the rain and sun spread a fabulous arch of seven colours across the sky for me to walk through. Where the stony lane levelled out I startled a dozen grouse from their perch on the wall; they fled across the heather with a crisp whirr of wings and a burst of harsh, hysterical cackling.
A twist of the lane and I was looking down on Scar House Reservoir, 300 feet below, penned behind a long dam wall and cradled by whaleback hills. They knew how to build this sort of thing in the 1920s, with castellated walls and romantic turrets, the work consecrated by multitudes of mayors and aldermen.
The wind had risen to a gale. White horses slapped the dam wall as I crossed it, and the wind shoved me in the back like an impatient sergeant as I took to the high moor road along the northern flanks of the dale. The Nidderdale Way sneaked off unmarked somewhere beyond Woo Gill, but I didn’t mind – not with a well-found track to follow, the wind as an ally instead of an enemy, and the whole panorama of Nidderdale at my feet, spanned by another tremendous rainbow.
Start & finish: Crown Hotel, Middlesmoor, Pateley Bridge, N. Yorks HG3 5ST (OS ref SE 092742)
Getting there:
Bus: Nidderdale Rambler Service 825, Sunday & BH (1st Sunday of month only till 4 April) – www.dalesbus.org
Road: A1, A61 to Ripon; B6265 to Pateley Bridge; cross River Nidd; next right, signed to Middlesmoor. Village car park just beyond Crown Hotel.
Walk: (9 miles, moderate/hard, OS Explorer 298): From Crown Hotel turn left up road, and on along walled lane (‘Nidderdale Way/NW’) and ‘Bridleway Scar House’) for 2 1/3 miles to Scar House Reservoir (067766). Cross dam wall; left up track; right (065772; NW) on stony track for 1 mile to cross Woo Gill (078777). Continue on track to pass Shooting House (084777). In 200 yards, right on moor road for 2¾ miles to another Shooting House (107753). Right downhill, through gate, down green track to Thrope Farm (102751). Through gate onto NW by farmhouse; right into farmyard (dogs are caged or tethered!); left around barn, down grass slope to cross River Nidd (101751). Left along river for half a field, then diagonally up through wall to cross road (099747; ‘Footpath to Middlesmoor’). Diagonally up fields through stone stiles; cross Intake Gill among trees (096743); up over stiles into Middlesmoor.
NB – online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk
Lunch: Crown Hotel, Middlesmoor (01423-755204; www.nidderdale.co.uk/crownhotel)
Accommodation: High Green Farm, Wath (01423-715958; www.highgreen-nidderdale.co.uk) – comfortable, spotless and beautifully positioned.
More info: Pateley Bridge TIC (01423-711147); www.visityorkshire.com;
www.yorskhiredales.org.uk; www.ramblers.org.uk