Lammerside Castle & Wharton Hall, plus Great Asby Scar 01/06/12

Day Five of my jollies didn't feature any walking as the spring rain pounded down and my four mile round trip from Tebay to Blease Fell, on the edge of the Howgills and above the Lune Gorge, was substituted with taking in the scenic parts of the M6 and A6, culture at The Museum of Lakeland Life, the Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Parish Church in Kendal, and shopping at K Village and Tebay Services. So Friday is upon us and it feels like we're running out of holiday, and having absorbed most of the guides to short walks in the vicinity, I had better pick a route and get my boots primed for another early start...

Spring Jollies: Day Six

Lammerside Castle & Wharton Hall.  6.6 miles
  plus Great Asby Scar. 3.6 miles

Smardale Gill 30/05/12

The last week of May had been my planned holiday week since taking the same week last year, so the appearance of two Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line walks in the immediate area during my week away was a very neat bit of happenstance, the sort of coincidence you often wish for and never get. Especially useful is the fact that the first of them goes to somewhere that I had been planning to walk ever since I chose Kirkby Stephen as my holiday destination, as Smardale Gill has landscape and industrial heritage and the walk promised us a bit of nature too, "For the Botanists" the FOSCL leaflet claims. "Sold!" is my immediate thought to that premise.

Spring Jollies: Day Four

Smardale Gill circular. 11.7 miles

High Force to Low Force 29/05/12

One of our pipe dream walks from long ago, courtesy of IH, was to take a bunch of us in two cars up to Cow Green reservoir and walk the Pennine Way path down Teesdale to Middleton-in-Teesdale. It never came to pass of course because the distance seemed like a long way, and the fact that the drive from Leeds would be way too far to do in a day. However, sights along the way of that walk appeal to my parents so for day three of my jollies, so we take the scenic route over the B6276 from Eden to Tees, for a day in the wilds of Teesdale.

Spring Jollies: Day Three

High Force to Low Force.  2 miles

Great Shunner Fell 28/05/12

Picking a summit to walk solo is an interesting business, you want one with a decently marked path, you don't want any walk that is too long, challenging or remote and you want somewhere that feels worthy of the trip, and has a view. That knocks the likes of Wild Boar Fell, Mallerstang Edge and Cross Fell from the list of choices and puts Great Shunner Fell right to the top; it has the Pennine Way over it, the whole stretch is 8 miles, with 350 metres of ascent, and ends at a pub. It's also 12 miles from Kirkby Stephen and would be a challenge to do walking from the Settle & Carlisle line, and it has a view. So get an early start so my parents can drive me to the start point near Thwaite, bouncing up Birkdale and down to the head of Swaledale, and the hot weather continues so the pace does not need to be too quick, I'd measured the walk at 11 miles and guess 5 hours to the other side.

Spring Jollies: Day Two

Great Shunner Fell: Thwaite to Hardraw.  8.5 miles

The Kirkby Stephen Viaduct Trail & Croglam Castle 27/05/12

A mini heatwave descended for the end of May, to neatly coincide with me taking my spring holiday in Kirkby Stephen with my parents. I chose Kirkby Stephen as it's a useful gateway to the north-western corner of the Yorkshire Dales and would be straight-forwardly accessible if I'd been forced to travel alone, and the week of choice neatly coincided with two FOSCL walks in the immediate area. So we travelled up on Saturday, the 26th, directing my parents over the A66 and the splendid bleakness of Stainmore, to take up our week's residence at Manor Lodge, which was all you could want for in a holiday home (apart from a lack of wi-fi), and to take stock of the town. To me it feels like a town lacking a constituency, in that other towns around the Dales, like Settle, Ilkley, Richmond and Leyburn attract tourists from the major conurbations nearby, but Kirkby Stephen has no major populations to draw from, and Cumbrians are more likely to hit The Lakes than the Dales or the Eden Valley. I characterise the town as 'hanging in there' because it feels like its peak has passed but still seems to have life left in it, and has plenty going for it if you are willing to invest time in the area. I should become an advocate for the upper Eden Valley, because it really is quite wonderful, and this town has its best face on in this week, dolled up for the Jubilee and basking in spring sunshine.

Enough chatter though, on to Sunday, and Walking!

Spring Jollies: Day One

The Kirkby Stephen Viaduct Trail & Croglam Castle.  4.6 miles.

Menston to Harewood via Otley Chevin 19/05/12

Leeds does not want for urban parks, but it does lack a good country park. I've already said that Golden Acre is under-sized and lacks wildness, and the likes of Temple Newsam and Roundhay have scale but seem too well tamed. My hometown, Leicester, has Bradgate Park, a former country estate in the heart of Charnwood Forest's Granite Country, that has hills and rocks and miles of trails amongst the bracken, and is also one of the most popular free outdoor attractions in the whole country, and yet Leeds, a city of many hills, really wants for something similar. So for today, we'll be heading for probably the wildest place in the entirety of Leeds District, Otley Chevin and its Forest Park, as it's a place that can't really be ignored in this young walking career.

Active May: Day Four

Menston to Harewood via Otley Chevin  11.7 miles

Tailbridge Hill & Nine Standards Rigg 12/05/12

You may have noticed a distinct lack of summits in my walking so far, so it must be time to make up for that. It's odd to find that when you mention that you have taken up walking, people tend to wonder what you have been up rather than where you have been, and you have to explain that there's quite a distinct difference in discipline between walking up and walking along. I might have walked over 100 miles but people are unimpressed that I haven't done the Yorkshire Three Peaks yet, actually, I'm disappointed that I haven't summitted any of them so far, but Ingleborough had too much snow, and I had too much upset stomach for Whernside. Anyways, I've got my Spring Holiday on the immediate horizon and I need to get a bit of ground knowledge in before then, so onward to Kirkby Stephen!

Active May: Day Three

Tailbridge Hill & Nine Standards Rigg.  12.3 miles

The Calder Valley & Birkby Bradley Greenways 07/05/12

Trying to make sense of the National Cycle Network is a frustrating business, as it is being created on a piecemeal basis as Sustrans gain funding and access to necessary lands, so today's stretch is part of the grand scheme of National Route 69 (dude), but it's hard to envisage it as part of a coast-to-coast path when so much of it remains in the planning stages. Even factor in the other sections in West Yorkshire and it's almost impossible to work out how it is all going to fit together, hopefully time and progress will prove my interpretations to be wrong, but for today this is just a stretch from Dewsbury to Huddersfield featuring a viaduct that I hadn't previously heard of!

Active May: Day Two

The Calder Valley & Birkby Bradley Greenways - Dewsbury to Huddersfield.  9.8 miles

Sowerby Bridge to Mytholmroyd, plus Bonus Stroll 05/05/12

Ever since my closest friends moved to Mytholmroyd in 2006, I've been entertaining the idea of walking there or back, but that plan has a couple of major drawbacks, most notably the fact that it is a really long way. Morley to Mytholmroyd is 19 miles, by the direct route and 26 by the prettiest, and doing that I'd probably be in no state to socialise if visiting or having to walk off the hangover from the previous night if going home. Walking back to grab the train at Mirfield looks like a possibility, but there are virtually no trains on a Sunday, my favoured travel-home day, and doing that on a Saturday after the work/booze mix of Friday does not appeal all that much. So if that walk does ever get done, it will probably be done in pieces, starting today, kicking off Active May.

Active May: Day One

Sowerby Bridge to Mytholmroyd via the Rochdale Canal path  4.2 miles
 plus Bonus Stroll  2.8 miles

The Spen Valley Ringway 28/04/12

From leaving the end of the Greenway, to getting to the bus stop in Oakenshaw, the day takes a decisive turn for the worse as the passable weather turns to an apocalyptic rainstorm which goes on and off for the remainder of the day. A normal day would have me beating a retreat, but the last 2 miles of today's walk is the part that I'd really be looking forward to, so I wait for the 268 bus and get sodden, and then have to work out where I have to get off the bus as we ride out of Cleckheaton and into Liversedge, diving off by Royds Park and hoping that I'm in the right place.

Active April: Day Four, part 2

The Spen Valley Ringway - Liversedge to Heckmondwike  1.8 miles

The Spen Valley Greenway 28/04/12

If you were given an interest in railways in your early years, there's a good chance that it's something that you never quite got out of your system, regardless of the fact that you stopped trainspotting and attending open days in your teens. You'll still hop on the occasional preserved line, and take note of developments on the national network, as well as displaying levels of interest that would still tag you as a gricer to any observer. That's the case with me at least, and the casual browsing of the internet led me to the discovery of this day's pair of walks through the Spen Valley, aka the Five Towns, aka the land where the names couldn't sound any more Yorkshire.

Active April: Day Four, part 1

The Spen Valley Greenway - Ravensthorpe to Low Moor  7 miles

Leeds Country Way #6: Robin Hood to Bruntcliffe Crossroads 21/04/12

There was supposed to be another trip out to Mallerstang on the 14th, but I woke with such an intense feeling of indifference to the idea of walking that I decided that it was best to not try to go out, it's probably not a good idea to try to walk when you are not feeling it. But hey, don't you think I might have earned a weekend off? And so the Leeds Country Way seems to roar up to its conclusion, but there had been a bit of a wait for this last day, and this is the day where the route description seemed vaguely written and the path felt circuitous just to fulfil the 'Country' part of the equation. Notably, the start point of today was only 3 miles or so from where I live, but I'd go on to walk nearly 13 miles before I got back home again.

Active April: Day Three

Leeds Country Way #6: Robin Hood to Bruntcliffe Crossroads  11 miles

Self at Robin Hood, below the M1 bridge

Leeds Country Way #5: Swillington Bridge to Robin Hood 09/04/12

Easter Monday morning is as grim as you'd like, a steady rain puddling outside and me sat at my window wondering if this is going to be another walking day lost. Disappointed, I eat my packed lunch and revert the day back to non-walking setting, until I notice a distinct easing off in the weather around 11.30 am and decide to make for the trail, as it's not a long day on the slate, and I think I can make my target finish of 4.15pm what with there being a Sunday bus service for the bank holiday.

Active April: Day Two

Leeds Country Way #5: Swillington Bridge to Robin Hood  8.8 miles

Self at Swillington Bridge

Leeds Country Way #4: Barwick in Elmet to Swillington Bridge 07/04/12

So onward, full bore into Active April, with another five days of walking on the schedule, and the early Summer of late-March has already passed, and we're back in the midst of a regular Northern Springtime. Starting with the long weekend of Easter, an opportunity to take down a significant portion of the Leeds Country Way, the first half took no time at all, so the second half ought to be a breeze! However, It's an odd thing to discover that catching the 64 bus from Morley to Barwick, takes longer than it would riding the 51 to Leeds and then boarding the 64 half-way. Such are the vagaries of public transport, I suppose.

Active April: Day One

Leeds Country Way #4: Barwick in Elmet to Swillington Bridge  9.9 miles

Self at Barwick in Elmet, at the Maypole