Walna Scar Shepherds Meet 2015.

Well enough of this fine weather, blue sky and basking in a hot sun, wearing shorts and tee shirts and forgetting where we had last used our waterproofs.
This weekend was back to more proper weather, rain, more rain, wind, waterproofs, mud and sheep.

The Walna Scar shepherds meet is an annual event that has 3 bases, The Newfield Inn at Seathwaite, Duddon Valley, The Church House at Torver (although the Wilson’s Arms stepped into the breach when the Church House closed but it has now re-opened) and The Blacksmiths Arms at Broughton Mills. The Meet alternates between the three, annually.
This year we were at Broughton Mills.

Herdwicks, always seem to smile.

It’s an event that we like to support and help out with as we have many friends here and it’s nice for us to offer them our time in a kind of re-payment for that friendship.

Our job was collecting gate money. A difficult task but someone has to do it.

Our drive over from Seathwaite to Broughton Mills was quite atmospheric, hill fog surrounding us and heavy showers intermittent.

First job is a coffee, followed by a slice (or maybe more) of home made cake and then a drop of port or rum just for medicinal purposes. As luck would have it Hilary had made a lovely cream sponge cake and then dropped it in the mud. It was heading for the bin before i salvaged some and scraped the mud off. It seemed such a waste and mud never killed anyone, he says.

Then it rained, and it rained. But the show goes on. There’s a lot at stake at these shows and those sheep have to be judged. Hours of washing, clipping, plucking and pampering getting them ready to show cannot go to waste.

At this show there are two breeds of sheep, The Herdwick and The Swaledale. Both hardy hill sheep.
And judging is a serious business and can be a bit stressful.

 Herdwicks being judged. No it’s not strictly come dancing.

Jock judging the Swaledales.

The beautiful setting for the Meet.

Quite a few visitors came and kept us busier than usual on the gate. The photographs of previous years Meets displayed in the marquee being particularly popular. Unfortunately the heavy showers made it that folk didn’t hang around too long.

Time went quickly and the smell of lunch at the Blacksmiths made us hungry. Michael and all the staff did a great job of getting everyone in and fed with a wonderful Lamb Tattie pot with black pudding and red cabbage. Followed by sticky toffee pudding and ice cream.
Then it was back on duty for a couple of hours as the folk arrived for the hound trailing and the pet show.
Around 3.00pm the wind had picked up quite a bit and before long the Marquee became a parachute and took off.  Luckily very little damage was done and all the trophies stayed on the table.

Champion Herdwick went to Kevin Wrathall from Cockley Beck Farm. Champion Swaledale went to Arnold Lancaster. He also took overall Champion.

 Arnold Lancaster collects his prize.

Kevin Wrathall collects his prize.

In the evening and late into the night a fine celebration of the day was held in the Blacksmiths where there was much singing and more judging. And just a little drinking. I think.

A most enjoyable day. And there are more photo’s here.

A short walk! Oh Yes.

Sunday 1st November.

We missed Conrad’s departure from our accommodation. We believe he had to go round the village dowsing the gas lamps or something like that.
The remaining folks also had long journeys ahead of them and so it was a farewell to so many so soon.
Martin, Sue B, Sheila and I, JJ and Martin from Berlin set off on a short walk, Martins idea of a short walk that is. To me it was just a normal day walk for a Sunday.

The day was incredibly warm and still and even the sheep were taking the shade.

Heading out of Leyburn towards Harmby a whole batch of white fungi spread before us. They looked good enough to eat and so thats what we did. Just to see if they were poisonous or not. Well i am still here to tell the tale.

We gather mushrooms whilst Martin from Berlin looks to be calling an Ambulance.

A very old green lane led us south out of Harmby towards the River Ure. Lots of wild flowers and autumn berries. A very large Heron was keeping a beady eye on us as we approached his perch on the rail of the bridge we had to cross. Then he was away.

All too soon JJ and Martin had to depart, Martin had to catch his flight back to Berlin. So that left four.

We were heading now for the village of Middleham. Once across the castellated bridge over the Ure 

the track was a muddy one and then up hill through a field full of spiders webs that shimmered in the sun.

As required by law, at the top of the hill we stopped for a coffee and brownies. Then onward to Middleham.

We were quite taken with this very old village with its lovely houses, old school and of course it’s castle. (Yes Alan S another castle).

Almost at coffee stop with a wonderful vista.

A walk around the outside of the castle. No we don’t pay to go into castles. 

The tradesman's entrance.

We set off for a gallop, not us of course, we are in race horse country and we were on the gallop. It was a long pull up to the top where a trig point was marking not quite the highest bit in our opinion.
It was hot now, 24 degrees C by Sue’s thermometer. It seemed to take ages to get to the watershed but eventually we got there and sat down by the track side for another brew.

 The Gallop

Almost at the Trig Point.

We had a bit of a meander as we tried to find the stile in the wall separating us from Millers Gill plantation. A dark wet and slippery woodland. It was soon located and more very large fungi studied but not tasted.

Martin chose a slightly different route to us through the dark forest but then again he had the map.

Martin found a huge mushroom or toadstool that reminded me of an Irish Bodhran.

A decision was made to cut short the short walk as time was getting on. Crossing the River Ure again to the west of Wensley we picked up our outbound route from yesterday and returned to Leyburn.

The River Ure at Wensley.

Our route. Clockwise from Leyburn. 15.4km.

And that was the weekend over apart from the foggy drive home. Thanks Martin and Sue for the invitation. Also thanks to everyone there for making it an enjoyable event.
We hope the book on the GR.11 does well and for anyone wishing to do that walk the book will be worth getting.
Check out Martins blog for details. Here.

A “B” Good Weekend.

A “B” weekend.
Books, Bloggers, Beers, Banter, Buddies, Bed and Breakfast, Berries and Basking. Not necessarily in that order.

Fellow blogger,  TGO Challenger, Worldwide Wanderer and all round good egg Martin Banfield messaged a few lucky folk to join him and Sue for a weekend in Leyburn, North Yorkshire. The underlying reason was the launch of Martin's book on the GR.11 route across the Spanish Pyrenees which took him 49 days.
Then there was the walking, drinking, eating and sun bathing. Yes, sun bathing in England in November. Temperatures climbed to the dizzy heights on Sunday afternoon of 24 deg. C.

The crowd arrived on Friday evening at Eastfield Lodge in Leyburn and consisted of:-

• Martin and Sue, 
• Myself and Sheila, 
• Sue and Ali from Newtonmore Hostel, 
• Blogger, LDW and multi book writer Conrad (AKA Sir Hugh), 
• Blogger, Pyrenean walker and TGO Challenger Alan Sloman, 
• TGO Challengers and Pyrenean walker Graham and Sue Brooks, 
• TGO Challengers, bloggers and multi long distance backpackers Mick and Gayle, 
• Martin from Berlin who was walking the GR.11 same time as Martin B. 
• Richard and Jenny, regular walkers and Martin and Sue’s house sitters. 
• And arriving on Saturday was Blogger and TGO Challenger JJ.

Friday evening went all too fast and consisted of a good walkers meal of stew and backed potato. Followed by lots of Gin, Whisky, Wine and beers whilst chatting to excess and putting the world to rights.

Saturday dawned gorgeous with just a hint of the fact that it was a winter morning. A temperature inversion stayed low in the valleys until around 9.30am but it was a warm and calm blue sky day.
After a very hearty Yorkshire breakfast or Full English as it is better known, the day sacks were packed, coffee made and away we went.

Martin had put together the walking route, he likes to do it you see and we are happy to let him. The fun part of it are the meanders, cough! We know where we are but not on quite the correct line. Its all part of the fun and can entail some fence climbing.

The leaders, heading out of Leyburn across numerous fields towards the railway crossing 

and onto the village of Wensley.

Before long the fleece jackets were being removed and i was so pleased i chose to walk in shorts and tee shirt. 

Many electric fences were negotiated and then the quiet village of Wensley entered. We had already had one meander btw.
There is a Candle Factory within the village but we saw no signage but there again we didn’t look for it either. 

Crossing the road we had our second meander when we realised we had taken the rather obvious footpath towards the grand Bolton Hall. Our planner said we should have headed further south towards the river. We would have ended up in the same place, so no harm done.

Bolton Hall and grounds are quite splendid. The Hall itself is a re-build after a fire in 1902. Originally built in 1678 after the village of Wensley had recovered from the plague. The building was built by Charles Paulet who went on to be Duke of Bolton.

Wensley’s village church was used for the wedding of James and Helen Herriot in the TV series All creatures great and small.

Bolton Hall

Once through the park grounds of the estate, the West Wood became a good spot to have a coffee. A mixed woodland area with Elderberry trees in full fruit. Very nice they tasted too.

As you can see everyone was listening to Martin’s every word. It started “In the beginning….

Ripe and juicy Elderberries.

We basked in the sun for a little while, chatting and drinking coffee like it was a spring day but we eventually had to keep going. The path along the river bank opened up the views of the River Ure. The path being quite high up gave us wide views and combined with the autumn colours and dry leaves gave some good images.

The Autumn colours surround the River Ure

The path through the woods ended too soon and led to a number of field systems where we had another little meander. It was quite funny but three people with electronic devices pointed that we should be going in three different directions. This was an easy mistake due to the fact that the three didn’t know the route.
Martin retraced the steps and found the hidden style located at the back of a tree. We were back on track. At this point we got our first glimpse of Bolton Castle in the haze.

Bolton Castle in the haze.

A few more electric fences to get past and a small lane which had numerous flooded sections brought us into the village of Redmires.
Here there were options. We had a choice of going up to the castle OR alternatively going straight to the village pub. I considered it for a second or two and decided to go to the Castle as i hadn’t been there before and go to the pub after. It was a good decision.
We did have a couple who chose the pub option but i will remain silent to who they were. No i won’t, it was Conrad and Mr Sloman.

So we went to the castle.

On the way we found a sleeping Dragon that had just had a snack.

And a good bench for lunch.

Bolton Castle was built between 1378- 1399 by Richard, First Baron Scrope of Bolton. Mary Queen of Scots was moved here in 1568 from her prison in Carlisle. Mary left Bolton Castle in 1569 for the last time and taken to Tutbury in Staffordshire for execution.
The castle is currently owned by Harry, the eight Baron Bolton who now lives at Bolton Hall.

Being now completely rested our route to the pub at Redmires, interestingly called The Bolton Arms, was an easy stroll through the village and across a couple of fields. On route we came across a fine bunch of fungi. Not sure if we could eat this variety, we left them in peace.

The Bolton Arms was quite busy with lunch time food customers but no problems getting served with a fine pint of Black Sheep Bitter. Conrad and Alan were sat outside and only on their second pint so we were led to believe.
JJ hadn’t turned up yet and phone calls were being made.
Eventually JJ trotted in after about a 7km jog from the B and B in Leyburn.
Graham and Sue decided to get the train back to Leyburn.

Most of the crew.

Fully refreshed we headed off back to Leyburn, again through Redmires village and then across the Wensleydale railway line. Upon reaching a minor road Martin wanted to do a short detour, not a meander you understand. For those who wanted to take a slightly shorter route there was an option.
Conrad was feeling a bit off and so Alan S went with him on the shortcut.
The sun was now dropping fast and the colours and shadows enhancing. Some cloud had started to roll in and towards the east we could see what looked like a sea fog.

We quickly and quietly passed through the lovely village of Preston under Scar on our way up onto the scar or escarpment proper. Gillfield Wood was particularly wet but only a short distance before gaining a minor road. The scar views were stunning and the path excellent.

Gillfield Wood

Walking pace increased due to the good path and the group became stretched. Richard, Jenny and Sue must have been able to smell the Gin and Tonic’s as they were well in front. Or it may have been the candy floss from the fairground in Leyburn.

Autumn berries along the Scar.

The sun in retreat, clouds coming in.

The Scar, Conrad and quite a drop off.

Ali Ogden and Sue Banfield.

The Last Rays of the day.

Back at the Lodge, a quick shower and cup of tea then off to Thirteen Restaurant.

A very enjoyable night, good food, good service, nice beers and wine and good company. What more did we want.

Saturdays route was 20.8km according to Satmap.

A bit of Nostalgia.

Years go by faster than we think and we take lots of photo’s that stay out of sight. Then one day you come across a few and have a laugh or cry as the case may be.
So here are a few of mine that bring back great memories. The images are not as good as today’s digital as quality gets lost with scanning and also years ago we didn’t seem to mind too much.

 Hiking in Cradle Mountain National Park. Tasmania

 Sun going down in Wasdale.

 Hiking in The Outer Hebrides.

 Sheila’s Mum and Sister’s first experience of camping.

 The best campsite in Wasdale.

 Fully loaded on Wainwrights Coast to Coast.

 Never to be forgotten. My visit to Hiroshima peace park.

 Hiking across Norway. Besseggen Ridge.

 A very cold night out Hiking with Sheila and Martin Banfield.

 Finishing the 2014 TGO Challenge.

 2 photo’s above. One of the most windy nights i have been camping in. On the slopes of Cadair Idris.

 Our Special Day.

 When i was fit and used to fell run.

 After a rainy ascent of Crib Goch we came out to a wonderful experience on Snowdon.

 Our two girls.

Lisa, youngest daughter. Fell running in Hiking boots. Sat at the summit of Scafell.

Where did all that time go.