A Littledale Walk - 5th. November 2013

What turned out to be the final shower of the day had just passed over as we made our way heading eastwards, through a series of fields and past several farms, on the south side of Littledale. We eventually arrived at Littledale Hall, an impressive place tucked away alongside Artle Beck. Shortly beyond there we took a short break, where the more trusting of us removed our waterproofs.

               Short break nr. Littledale Hall                                                           Footbridge over Mallow Gill

                                                                   Footbridge over Pedder Gill

Although the rain had by now passed over several hours ago, the fields were very wet and Mike, our walk leader, had to endure some light hearted banter as these conditions, of course, had to be his fault!

The highlights on this section of the walk were the very picturesque crossings of several streams, including Mallow Gill and Pedder Gill (shown in the above pictures) and the River Roeburn, a mile or so south of the village of Wray.

Shortly after crossing the River Roeburn, we took a very comfortable lunch break, sat on bales of straw in a barn on the lower slopes of Caton Moor. Getting moving again from there was a bit of an effort, but once on the move we made our way through moorland pasture and, although Mike assured us it was downhill all the way back, he still had a few nasties in store for us. The final nasty came after we had dropped down to Crossgill and crossed over Udale Bridge. The final mile back to our cars was all uphill. Maybe this was Mike's way of getting back at us for our earlier banter?

Thanks a lot Mike for a good walk through places that were new to many of us. We had 8 on the walk which was approx. 16 miles in length. 

Stan.