{"id":1566,"date":"2018-06-02T01:26:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T00:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2018-05-25T14:56:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T13:56:33","slug":"malham-tarn-and-darnbrook-north-yorkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1566","title":{"rendered":"Malham Tarn and Darnbrook, North Yorkshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=740,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/>\nFirst published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Malham.gpx');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4759\/26546448438_2ef0d4baf0.jpg\" title='stony track past Middle House'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4759\/26546448438_2ef0d4baf0_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4769\/39521538595_af41989f29.jpg\" title='Malham Tarn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4769\/39521538595_af41989f29_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4630\/39521537885_a04923569d.jpg\" title='cattle walk the shores of Malham Tarn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4630\/39521537885_a04923569d_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4626\/39521537065_78df22fcc5.jpg\" title='limestone crags above Malham Tarn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4626\/39521537065_78df22fcc5_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4672\/39521536135_f5a00c7f6a.jpg\" title='limestone crags above Malham Tarn 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4672\/39521536135_f5a00c7f6a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4658\/39521534035_23acc7ecbc.jpg\" title='farm road to Middle House Farm 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4658\/39521534035_23acc7ecbc_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4631\/26546451558_a547cd9a76.jpg\" title='limestone crags above Malham Tarn 5'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4631\/26546451558_a547cd9a76_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4653\/39521531555_a165788cfb.jpg\" title='limestone crags above Malham Tarn 6'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4653\/39521531555_a165788cfb_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4607\/39521529765_d8786e53db.jpg\" title='Middle House'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4607\/39521529765_d8786e53db_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4632\/39521528015_d7a23700da.jpg\" title='mountain pansy on Cowside Fell'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4632\/39521528015_d7a23700da_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4619\/38606596810_d76e4a5744.jpg\" title='bird&#039;s-eye primrose on Cowside Fell 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4619\/38606596810_d76e4a5744_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4602\/38606595970_52364ffc8a.jpg\" title='wood anemone on Cowside Fell'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4602\/38606595970_52364ffc8a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4701\/39521525295_940a2d741a.jpg\" title='looking down into Darnbrook Dale'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4701\/39521525295_940a2d741a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4605\/40417390111_dfca1b9286.jpg\" title='limestone pavement above Darnbrook Dale'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4605\/40417390111_dfca1b9286_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4756\/40417388661_18d0f9e29c.jpg\" title='looking down dale of Cowside Beck'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4756\/40417388661_18d0f9e29c_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4659\/38606591880_2e50a9288b.jpg\" title='path by Malham Tarn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4659\/38606591880_2e50a9288b_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1566\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=1566','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nA heavenly morning of warm sun and cooling breezes over the Yorkshire Dales. The soft blue sky was streaked with mare&#8217;s tails of cloud, betokening a change in the weather. But just now, setting out along the shores of Malham Tarn, we were living in the moment and the day.<\/p>\n<p>The wind-rippled tarn was exactly the colour of blued steel. Beyond the water, Malham Tarn house sat handsomely among its trees under the long grey-white cliffs of Highfolds Scar. This is all prime limestone country, weathered into rugged cliffs or scars that fall to pastures of rough grazing.<\/p>\n<p>The wide pastures of West Great Close and East Great Close were the site of a great fair in times past, where thousands of Scottish cattle would be sold and driven on south to be fattened for the markets of southern England. The old drover&#8217;s vocation is long gone, but black cattle still fatten in these grassy pastures.<\/p>\n<p>Above Middle House Farm we came into an upland of eroded limestone pavement where the wind blustered and the sun picked out brilliant blobs of colour in the wind-bitten grasses &#8211; buttery yellow mountain pansies, stout early purple orchids, spatters of mountain violets, and the intense pink flowers of bird&#8217;s-eye primroses. Tucked down in the grykes or hollows of the limestone was a woodland flora, bizarrely flourishing in this open, treeless terrain &#8211; wood anemones, dog&#8217;s mercury and lush ferns.<\/p>\n<p>From the watershed we dropped down a long hillside, looking forward to a grand sweep of fellside &#8211; Malham Moor and Fountains Fell cradling the long valley of Darnbrook Dale. Down at Darnbrook House the farmer and his son were busy in a farmyard loud with the yammering of ewes and lambs.<\/p>\n<p>We followed the sinuating dale road past barns and pastures until the straight track of the Pennine Way cut across, leading us along a fellside of wide slopes, lonely barns, and a tangle of stone walls. Round the shore of Malham Tarn once more, through pastures where slow-moving cattle browsed the lake margins in the last of the afternoon&#8217;s sunshine.<\/p>\n<p>Start: Water Sinks car park, Malham Tarn, N. Yorks BD23 4DJ (OS ref SD 894658)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Malham Tarn Shuttle Bus 881 (<a href=\"http:\/\/dalesbus.org\/malhamshuttle\">dalesbus.org\/malhamshuttle<\/a>)<br \/>\nRoad &#8211; Malham Tarn is signed from Malham (follow &#8216;Airton&#8217;, &#8216;Kirkby Malham&#8217; from Gargrave on A65 Skipton-Settle road).<\/p>\n<p>Walk (8\u00bd miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL2): From car park follow Pennine Way\/PW (signed) north, skirting shore of Malham Tarn. In 700m meet white stone track (897663); don&#8217;t go through gate, but bear right with a wall on left and a round walled plantation up on right. Pass Great Close Plantation, then left (904663, &#8216;Arncliffe&#8217;) up farm track. At entrance to Middle House Farm, left over stile (907676, &#8216;Arncliffe&#8217;), up to skyline gate. Follow stony track to pass Middle House ruin; fork left at fingerpost (907684); on for 1 mile over Middle House Hill, descending to go through wall gap (900696). Right to ruined wall; left along it, down to cross Cowside Beck (899701). Field path to road at Darnbrook House (898705); left along road; in 1\u00bc miles meet PW (884691). Left on well way-marked PW for 1\u00bc miles to road (888673); left on PW, clockwise round Malham Tarn to car park.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Picnic<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: Malham Youth Hostel, Malham BD23 4DB (0345-371-9529, <a href=\"http:\/\/yha.org.uk\/hostel\/malham\">yha.org.uk\/hostel\/malham<\/a>); also Lister Arms, Malham (01729-830444, <a href=\"http:\/\/thwaites.co.uk\">thwaites.co.uk<\/a>) and Buck Inn, Malham (01729-830317, <a href=\"http:\/\/thebuckmalham.co.uk\">thebuckmalham.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Info:  Malham National Park Centre (01729-833200; <a href=\"http:\/\/yorkshiredales.org.uk\">yorkshiredales.org.uk<\/a>); <a href=\"http:\/\/yorkshire.com\">yorkshire.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/satmap.com\">satmap.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/ramblers.org.uk\">ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Times Britain\u2019s Best Walks\u00a0by Christopher Somerville (\u00a316.99, HarperCollins) is now out in paperback<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A heavenly morning of warm sun and cooling breezes over the Yorkshire Dales. The soft blue sky was streaked with mare&#8217;s tails of cloud, betokening a change in the weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}