Sunday 21st September 2024       Nidderdale Way – Day 3

Walk Leader – Neil Harwood

Number on walk – 4

Distance – 19 miles

Weather – Overcast initially but turned out to be a largely nice day with sunny spells.

Finally, we had a decent weather forecast for Day 3 of the Nidderdale Way, which would hopefully make up for the very wet and miserable Day 1 and a damp Day 2. Although it was overcast to begin with, the forecast was right and it was a pleasant temperature for most of the day and the sun came out in the afternoon.

We met in Pateley Bridge, again, and we eventually located Chris who had travelled separately from nearby Harroagte. Unfortunately, our car park was now the site of a fun-fare. I had partly anticipated this and moved the walk from the Sunday to the Saturday as a Show was being held on the adjoining fields, but I had hoped that this would not affect our parking arrangements. Anyway, after a few e mails and a drive around the village we located Chris and then it was another drive to the start in Birtswith.

Before starting, I explained that I had not had the time to reccy the first two thirds of the route but it was a recognised LDP so there should be no problems but please do give me some leniency if I don’t always get it right. Would you believe it, within 10 minutes of the start we came to a river with no way across and it transpired that I had taken a wrong turn already. So we quickly retraced our steps and found the correct route and after that I made sure I concentrated and I don’t think we took a wrong turn after that. It was suggested I should be called “Nidderdale Neil” but that is a private joke!

Enough of my ramblings and back to the route. Our first place of interest was the village of Hampsthwaite. It really is very pretty and the route takes a meandering route around the church and then along the main road. We pass over the Nidd and for the rest of the day we will be on the northern side of the valley. Of course, from the river there is only one way and that is up and it is a steep climb up to Clint. From there is a pretty walk on a quiet lane and then into woods, which are part of the Ripley Castle Estate. We pass the lake then along the surrounding walls and then stop for elevenses by the cafe and shops. You can peer through to the house/castle and it is certainly one of those places that you think that I should come back to one day. The village is also equally agreeable. The Nidderdale valley certainly has its fair share of pretty villages!

The next hour or so is a nice walk through farmland avoiding a shoot and with the odd busy road section. We find a bench and grass to sit on for lunch in the village of Shaw Mills. Its then another hour or so of pleasant fields and tracks to Brimham Moor and its Rocks. The latter are owned by the National Trust and it is a very busy place with two car parks serving the many visitors. Strangely, the Nidderdale Way does not visit the rocks but it is certainly worth a detour and that is what we do taking a circular walk around these quite strange rock formations including exploring some of them by scrambling between some of them. We resisted the temptation to climb and also an ice cream as the queue was too long. We still had a couple of hours or so back to Pateley Bridge so no slacking.

There is then a pretty decent down to another pleasant village called Smelthouses, which inevitably is followed by another climb up the valley side, through a mysterious wood which follows Fell Beck. We are now on the final leg back to the finish which follows an “undulating” route along the valley then down the Promenade into Pateley Bridge and its main street with its many attractive shops. We celebrate completing the walk with an ice cream with a variety of flavours from Rhubarb to Salted Caramel!

Day 3 was another lovely walk, not as dramatic or as beautiful as Day 1 but it was still a nice walk and Nidderdale is a beautiful valley especially when the weather is good and there are some lovely villages to explore long the way.  I would definitely recommend that you use the Nidderdale Way to explore this relatively unknown part of Yorkshire.