Otterburn

Never done this walk before.  New book and new walk.  This was promoted as a good walk to do with children. It was tricky finding somewhere to park.  Otterburn is the tiniest hamlet with narrow roads.  Eventually found a spot near the start of the walk.  Good start – straightforward hike up a track which went on for quite a long way steadily climbing upwards. 

There were good views all around and a blue sky with white fluffy clouds.  However once I got to the top the way wasn’t so clear.  I wandered up to the top of field but couldn’t really see the way forward.  After reading the book a few times it suggested I went through a large moorland pasture field full of cows to drop back down to the farm track just below me. 

Well I decided to miss that bit out and went down to the farm track and followed that to Orms Gill Green to where there was an old lime kiln. 

From here I picked up the route again walking along Orms Gill Green lane. Eventually the direction was to take an unsigned gate to the right heading along the wall edge down to a track to lovely little settlement through a gate – surrounded by cows –

 which trotted off thank goodness before I opened the gate through to some woodland eventually bringing me through a farmyard and back to where I started.  I had successfully made a 5 mile walk into a 6 mile walk and it had been pretty tricky in parts finding my way –there seemed to have been a lot of unmarked, paths, gates and turnings.

Haw Crag

Excellent day for a walk and because it will soon be coming darker earlier in the afternoon I decided to do Haw Crag while the days were long enough.  This walk started from Bell Busk and parked up in a small lay by just by a viaduct.  Taking the road back to the bridge then walking up the rough track to the field where Haw Crag is. 

I’ve never gone through this field without there being cows in it.  They didn’t move thank goodness as I quickly made my way up the hill.  At the top I passed through a stile and made my way across the field.  The fields here are huge you can’t see the walls at the other side as they are hilly too.  Luckily I spotted a trod which took me over to the left and down to the gate into the next field.  Last time I’d spent quite a while wandering around looking for the way out.  This second field had cows too but they were all laid down in a far corner so a long way from where I was going.  At the bottom I turned along the river bank to walk alongside the river. 

It was flowing fast today after the recent rainfall – the old bridge looked good – had to take a photo.  

The way back from here was straight forward past an old farm building full of derelict rusting cars and back to the car.  5 miles walked – good day.

Gargrave and The Pennine Way

I have done this walk several times before but there is always something new to see – today was no exception.  Walking along the canal at the first set of locks there were several keepers working on the gates maintaining them and to do that they had drained the canal just beyond.  It was really interesting to see the canal basin.  It isn’t as deep as  I thought it would be and the sides get shallower and shallower up to the canal walls.  

It did make the canal look a bit sad and bedraggled.  As I walked around the ground was fairly damp under foot and as I turned back on the Pennine Way a couple coming towards me warned of the field ahead which had just been spread with slurry.  

There little white dog had enjoyed it – it had rolled in it and looked like they would be very busy bathing it when they got home.  Further along as I turned down the trakc to take me back towards Gargrave I came across a whole hedge of Blackthorn absolutely covered in Sloe berries. 

Thank goodness I’d brought a plastic bag in my back pack.  Within 20 minutes I’d picked 4.5lbs.  What a good end to a 5 mile walk around Gargrave.

Hardraw Force Brass Band Competition

No walking involved today – or very little anyway we had come up to support the Friendly Brass Band in competition at Hardraw Force.  Unfortunately it was a dull rainy day.  

But there were plenty of people in the audience who had come prepared with seats, waterproofs and blankets and a little rain was not going to spoil the day.  We had fun and the children clapped and sang along in parts. 

Even though the band didn’t win anything everyone enjoyed themselves. 

Heather and Moorland

This was another photo workshop walk – based up around Grosment. The theme was to be able to enhance the colour of the moorland and create atmospheric pictures.

In summary-  Setting for colour - Picture style/control, white balance, contrast and not over exposing the scene go a long way to improving the depth of colour in a photograph.. • Compose yourself - Not forgoing a clear focal point, layering your composition, altering your angle and keeping it simple will help improve your framing skills.

The people on the workshop I had met most of them before so felt more comfortable with them today – we spent a good morning wandering around the moor taking in the view and photographing points of interest.  At lunchtime they said they were going on to Paddys Hole afterwards as no-one had signed on the afternoon workshop so would I like to join them.  I thought I might as well seeing as I had driven all the way up here.  I am so glad I did.  This was a most amazing hidden gem. 

I have never seen anything like this before – On arrival it felt like you were trespassing and would be evicted at any moment it was so out of the way and had such a group of insular people – without them saying anything you knew you were an outsider and was being watched – but the atmosphere the views and interest there was brilliant.  Tom Marsh was off straight away with his camera soaking it all up.  It was a great day – an unexpected adventure.

Lad O Crow Hill

Fine sunny day and excited at the prospect of a new walk with Gail and Monica.  Monica had picked this walk from the Bradford Council walking web site.  Parked on Back Lane in Stanbury and set off.  The first part was pretty straight forward up to Top Withins. 

From here we must have taken the wrong path as we spent quite a while on the tops looking for the trig point above Delph Hill 1456 ft above sea level. From here we scanned the horizon to find the Alcomden Stones our next point of reference.  Gail set off confidently while Monica and I faffed around with our maps and compass before eventually agreeing Gail had set off in the right direction.  Once we reached the stones we couldn’t see any particular landmarks to guide us the right way – we again watched Gail treck off head in the air saying she thought it was this way.  Here we were supposed to be following the boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

  Over this part of the rugged moorland we had to constantly check our direction against the compass (this is the most remote moorland in the area).  It was hard work walking over the heather and tufts of grass and there were several sneaky boggy areas and hidden holes and hollows.   At one point Gail went down a hole up to her thigh.  She was lucky she had her walking pole with her as she scrambled out.  Eventually we stopped and checked the horizon up ahead and in the distance we saw another group of walkers on the horizon where there was a slight hill – this we guessed was Crow Hill our next point and where we planned to have lunch.  When we got there the walk had definitely been worth it.  The views were fantastic  and we were ready for a rest and our sandwiches. 

We checked our OS map and we had definitely found Crow Hill.  After lunch we walked easterly along the top of the moors to a large boundary stone  and the stone marking the supposed grave of Lad or Scar on Crow Hill , eventually dropping down to the old Delph Hill Quarry.

From here there was a well-defined track to take us all the way back to Ponden Reservoir. 

We walked along the embankment turning up the track to Buckley Green.  Here there were jams and chutneys for sale we bought some and rammed them in our back packs. We were now on the home straight back to Back Lane which had filled up with cars since we set off this morning.  Our final leg of the day was to call at the pub in Stanbury for a lager shandy.  What a grand day out and a good 8 miles covered.

Easby Abbey

This wasn’t a walk as such but a photo walk around Easby Abbey – a workshop I had booked on to a few weeks ago which I thought looked interesting – especially as I had never been to Easby Abbey before.  I found it without too much difficulty thanks to good old Sat Nav. 

There was a full group of us 6 + Tom Marsh our expert photographer, some of the people I recognised from previous walks.

The theme of this workshop was all about Historical photography bringing the past to life. We can do this by thinking carefully about the subject/location we are photographing and how we are photographing it.

 • By contrasting old and new elements, changing your angle, considering black and white or picking out details we can begin to tell a story.