Yorkshire Dales 1st July 2010

1st July 2010 - Kettlewell - Arncliffe - Hawkswick- Kettlewell

Pathfinder Yorkshire Dales Guidebook Walk #16

6.96 Miles, 5 hours

Max altitude 1,617ft, Ascent 1,925ft, Descents 1,909 ft.

After a slightly less hearty breakfast

(chose poached eggs on toast in lieu of the breakfast banquet yesterday), we set off in the opposite direction from yesterday's meanderings across the stone bridge (wharfe bridge) out of Kettlewell.

The weather was less warm with a bit more cloud.

Heading right and taking the left hand track the path ascended for a while giving a good view over Kettlewell itself.

The path was relatively steep and eventually we reached the stone wall at the top

Here was a short scramble up through the gap to the top (nothing too bad or strenuous)

At the top we stopped to admire the view back over Kettlewell once again from this higher vantage point.

Following the moorland over easier gradients we enjoyed the ever opening views across the valleys. As can be seen from the trip log profile, this walk ascends a valley, descends down to Arncliffe and then ascends a second valley, before finally descending back down to Kettlewell again.

Once across the top of this moorland there followed a quite steep descent down to the village of Arncliffe. The first part of this was rocky through mixed woodland, care needed here on the descent.

Now, another word of warning (take heed ,travellers!), this time concerning the village of Arncliffe and its public house - The Falcon.

Having already been warned by Liz and Laurence the owners of our B&B that the landlord of the Falcon is a little .... eccentric.... and not to be offended... and that the beer is served.... unconventionally!

We approached the Falcon with a little trepidation.......

Entering the pub through the corridor it was... very quiet..... no one else around.

The small hatch in front appeared to be the bar - no one around, looking to the right a kitchen with open door.

An older gentleman sized us up.

He sighed, shrugged his shoulders, muttered something and trudged wearily to the small hatch......

He looked us up and down again (no doubt thinking more tourist, wannabbee hikers, not from these parts!)

He asked us what we would like.

There were no pumps on the bar, so I meekly enquired as to what he had - now noticing the casks of ale on the floor behind the bar.

Bitter or Lager he replied.

I went for the bitter, he poured it in a torrent into a jug from the cask, holding the jug , once filled to the light, and deposited from a height into the pint glass now on the bar.

This was obviously an art he has perfected.. there was no spillage, nor an ice cream head on the beer, just a glass of beer with a reasonably frothy head all ready for consumption.

Sue had a coke!

The beer was actually very good, and in actual fact the landlord spoke without muttering, spending the time with us at the bar with conversations over our stay and origin.

The conversation even turned, for some strange reason, over pronunications of place names to Drax (strange name!) and its power station - though I think he had read some headlines in the newspaper that day regarding this, as his knowledge seemed quite detailed for someone living in the middle of nowhere.

We left in good cheer, the landlord shouting after us "Is it true that you get two eggs for breakfast at Pennycroft?".

Liz and Laurence had said that at some point he would ask us this question - an in joke obviously! Yeah, you had to be there!

We left The Falcon refreshed, and continued on away from Arncliffe through to a riverside pasture still thinking about the pub and its landlord.

Here we stopped for lunch and watched the sandmartins swooping and diving, and observing their burrow nests in the side of the river enbankment. An excellent place to stop.

After lunch we continued through green pastures

crossing a footbridge across the river.

This led us to a narrow lane and the very small hamlet of

Hawkswick - just a few houses along a lane really.

Leaving Hawkswick we followed the sign for Kettlewell and turned up a stony track which gained height climbing up onto Hawswick Moor

The view down to Arncliffe can be seen above from the top of the moor.

The high level trek here leads to a cairn and gives splendid view over the second valley of the day before descending once again to lower grassier paths and a ruined building.

Following this path leads back to Kettlewell and the stone bridge, the sign below is just before the bridge on the main road into Kettlewell

We arrived back into Kettlewell around 15:30 having taken a leisurely and enjoyable 5 hours.

Liz had cake straight from the oven waiting for us on our return which we duly helped ourselves to along with tea and coffee.

Our Walk Score: 8/10