Date: Sunday 21th April 2019
Route: Reeth to Aysgarth
Distance: 12 miles (19.3 KM)
Accommodation: Colman’s of Aysgarth B&B

 

I got off to a very slow start this morning. My walk resembled the sideways shuffle of a crab and while I didn’t have any blisters, my feet were throbbing. I definitely did not have my navigation head on this morning and managed to take a wrong turn within about 10 minutes of leaving the campsite!

After relocating the trail I made my way towards Grinton village. In the village, there is the Bridge Inn which has the weirdest roof ornament I have ever seen…a sheep with a bicycle on top. They also have a tuba, a guitar and what looks like a cat flap in one of the upper floor windows.

There is a YHA hostel in Grinton but it was fully booked when I’d started making plans for this trip and so didn’t get to stay there. It is in a beautiful location, right next to the moors with a stunning view of the village below, so worth trying to get a place at. When you get to the hostel, you can decide whether to take the traditional route to Aysgarth or a short cut over Greets Hill. I have to admit, I spent about 10 minutes standing at the hostel deciding whether I wanted to take this short cut as my feet ached so much, but in the end I went for the longer route.

In all honesty, this was probably the most boring day on trail for me (minus the incident with getting lost at the grouse butts) as about 8 of the 12 miles were along a four-wheel drive track. While it made for easy walking, it wasn’t the most stimulating of walks and I soon became quite bored.

There was a somewhat hairy moment on this day where I became a bit lost trying to follow the grouse butts to the track at Morley’s Folly. When I’d bumped into the author of the guide book the day before, he had warned me that this section was a bit confusing and he wasn’t wrong! I think the issue was that I’d assumed all grouse butts would be very obvious to find, but some of them were nothing more than a pile of rocks with a number painted on the side.

After a few minutes of panic thinking I was going to end up lost in the middle of the moor, I gave up trying to find the butts and just walked to where I thought the top of the hill was. Annoyingly, this ended up being where the elusive grouse butt “number 10” was anyway so I wasn’t being as smart as I thought!

After another couple of miles on the four-wheel drive track, you arrive at Dent’s Houses. This building makes for a lovely resting spot, with some tables inside and a toilet to use. There isn’t any drinking water (the tap says it isn’t safe) but next to the building is a fast moving stream which I filtered some water from and had no issues. I met my first person of the day here, a young lady who was out doing some off road cycling and while we didn’t chat for very long, it was nice seeing another face around.

Soon after Dent’s Houses, I finally left the moors behind and started walking through lush green fields towards Castle Bolton. My camera didn’t pick it up, but from these fields you can just about see the chimney of the old Cobscar Smelting Mill which was used for target practise in WW2. This section was a little boggy despite the warm weather, but it was a nice change from the dusty old moorland.

You can hear the bustle of visitors at Castle Bolton long before you can actually see it. I had wanted to go in and take a look around, but the number of tourists inside was incredibly overwhelming and so I made do with popping inside for a quick drink and a wander around the grounds. The 14th century castle is in really good condition and it made for a beautiful resting spot.  There is a really cool sculpture of a dragon with a knights foot sticking out of the mouth which was carved from an old tree just down the lane from the castle. Apparently it took 32 hours to carve!

After leaving Castle Bolton, the trail follows some old Right of Way paths beside some houses and through some fields until you reach Aysgarth Falls. Once again, I had wanted to pop down to the Falls to take some pictures but there were so many people around, I couldn’t get any good shots and so I headed to the Visitor Centre instead for an ice cream and a cup of tea.

The village of Aysgarth doesn’t seem to contain much except for the Falls, a tea room and the local church. A little further up the hill, there is the George and Dragon pub which is the traditional end of the Herriot Way but I still had one more day on trail, so I made my way to my campsite for the night – Colman’s of Aysgarth.

This is probably the nicest campsite I have ever stayed at! The facilities were incredibly clean, the owners are among some of the nicest people I have ever encountered and they make a delicious take away breakfast in the morning (their black pudding is to die for).

I didn’t take any pictures of the campsite as I was knackered from walking in the heat all day, but if you ever find yourself needing somewhere to stay near Aysgarth, this is the place.