Sunday 15th September 2024       Nidderdale Way – Day 2

Walk Leader – Neil Harwood

Number on walk – 4

Distance – 18 miles

Weather – Grey, low cloud but largely rain free.

Day 2 of the Nidderdale Way promised to follow on from the very wet Day 1, the previous Sunday. The weather forecast showed a deep front passing over northern England so I was all prepared for a largely miserable day – such a contrast to the day when I reccied most of the route, when it was a beautiful sunny day. Well, that’s the joy of walking you just have to get on with it. And in fact, whilst it rained all day in Lancashire, we largely managed to avoid it in Nidderdale in spite of the low dark clouds which hung around the valley for most of the day.

We met in the village of Birstwith, and after a quick chat with a local angler who had been fishing on the Nidd for over seventy years, we made our way north to the pretty village of Ramsgill, which was the end of our Day 1 walk. The Way retraces it route along the Gouthwiate Reservoir to the village of Wath before heading west over the hill and down in the valley of Ashfold Side Beck, with its caravan park. This took us up to disused mines and the Prosperous Smelt Mill, which still includes quite a few remains of the activity there back in the 19^th century.

Another steep but short climb out of that valley and over the tops and down to the village of Bewerley, which is actually on the outskirts of Pateley Bridge so you could say we were half way through the Nidderdale Way at that point. The village green with benches made an ideal lunch stop although it did start to drizzle a little. Then suitably refreshed we had another steep climb up to Yorke’s Folly – the route does climb up and down the valley side several times. The views from the folly and on the heather moors beyond were largely of mist but still no real rain.

Then it is back down to valley bottom and the River Nidd again at Summerbridge, followed by a long section along the river back to Birtswith, interrupted by another climb out of the valley and back down again at Swarcliffe. Amazingly we had some sunshine at the end as we came back into Birtswith.

As with all linear walks, the day had not finished as we had to then go back to Ramsgill to recover one of the cars before the long journey home.

Day 2 was not as dramatic or as beautiful as Day 1 but it was still a nice walk and Nidderdale is a beautiful valley when the weather is good. I would recommend that you use the Nidderdale Way to explore this relatively unknown part of Yorkshire.