Walking the Western Yorkshire Dales or North Yorkshire Moors?

Hi Lola -

Guess I’m up!

I’ve looked at both itineraries and for me I’d go with the Sedbergh based Western Dales one. It covers a lot of ground in a short time and will give you a good snapshot of the Dales. Sedbergh is a nice little town which features quite a few second hand book shops. The itinerary features some decent walks and trips and if you have a free day and didn’t want to travel, you can walk straight onto the Howgill Fells from the town centre. It all sounds rather good, wouldn’t mind going myself!

Where to stay beforehand? Well, you could stay in Malham, a (very) popular village in the southern Dales. It’s a small place but is geologically very interesting and has a load of great walks straight out of the door. There’s several places for accommodation right in or near the village. We’ve most recently stayed at Beck Hall which is a short way out of the village, but easily walked, it’s only a couple of hundred yards. Thoroughly recommended! We’ve also stayed at the Buck Inn and there’s also the Lister Arms almost opposite, which we’ve eaten at and can vouch for but haven’t stayed.

My reasoning for staying there is because there is a rail link to Gargrave which is six miles away from Malham. From Heathrow, take the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross and then catch the LNER East Coast line to Leeds (frequent trains, travel time a tad over two hours). You can connect to Gargrave without leaving the station - I’ve not checked but the route goes via Skipton, you may need to change again there, or it may be direct, need a bit more research. Final jump to Malham would be by (very) infrequent bus, or taxi. You may or may not know that Malham is where Bill Bryson lived for many years.

There is an HF holidays base near Eshton, but as I’m not too familiar how they operate, whether you could persuade them to let you stay there for a couple of days without booking one of their short holidays, I don’t know - it isn’t, it must be said, ideally situated for any transport links.

Alternatively, you could stay in Gargrave which, although it’s not the biggest place on earth, does have a Premier Inn attached to the Anchor Inn and couple of our friends stayed fairly recently at the Masons Arms - at the time of their stay it was the pub with no beer because they had lost their licence (one assumes temporarily) for breaking COVID lockdown rules!

From Gargrave you can catch the train onwards to Oxenholme - again it seems to be direct, but I haven’t done a thorough check - it’s possible you may have to change at Preston or similar if it isn’t a direct link, but it will be easy.

Just a thought anyway. You could do a spot of ‘Googling’ to see if any of the above fits your bill and if you need any further help or walk suggestions in the locale, please feel free to contact me.

Ian

I was hoping to hear from you, Ianandjulie. Thank you so much! Malham sounds very good. HF Hols does have a house near there—-Newfield Hall—-and we were booked there for a 4-night walking holiday in July 2020. Canceled, of course. They do not have a program offered in the time we have available next September, so I did not consider Malham. But you have given us some great options for exploring on our own.

Is there anyplace in the Lake District closer to Oxenholme that you might recommend as an alternative? Or would it be too busy in that area in mid-September? We have enjoyed walking near Keswick from the HF country house at Derwentwater, and my husband might like to see more of the Lake District, to the south. He loves lake swimming.

Hi again Lola -

I was just thinking again about alternatives of where to stay and because familiarity breeds contempt, it never occurred to me to suggest Ilkley, just up the road from where I live. It has swift rail links to Leeds, is a former spa town - the spa remaining is up on the hill behind the town heading onto the moors. There’s plenty of moorland walking, Neolithic rock carvings (if you know where to look), transport links to Skipton (fine castle) access up the Dales Way to Bolton Priory and Barden Tower (ruins of a shooting lodge built by Lady Ann Clifford) further up river. There are links through to Howarth and the Bronte Country too. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it straight off!

To answer your question about staying in the Lakes, the line from Oxenholme runs through Kendal to its terminus at Windermere (the town). The lake of the same name is further down the hill (mile or so) and the town on its shores is called Bowness. This area is what many people consider ‘The Lake District’ so it gets heavingly busy at the best of times and frankly I avoid it if I can. However, the best links through to Grasmere (which is Wordsworth country and also busy but the town itself is smaller and rather nice) are accessed from here, by bus or taxi. That said, I would get off the train in Windermere and catch the bus (or taxi) from there to Coniston, which is not far away, (I think the bus goes via Ambleside), and has a load of good walking, a large lake - Coniston Water, (I think more people wild swim there because Windermere is very, very busy boat, launch and ferry wise), John Ruskin’s house Brantwood is on the far side of the lake from the town, and you can cross or circuit the lake on ‘Gondola’ a steam powered ‘yacht’ and there’s a museum in the village which has some artefacts from Donald Campbells ill fated attempt on the world water speed record on Coniston, if I remember correctly. The town also has several excellent pubs and there is quite a bit of accommodation within the town. And it’s just that bit quieter than the more touristy areas.

Ambleside at the head of Windermere (lake) is another best-avoided town as it’s very busy too although it does have some Roman fort ruins (not especially jaw dropping).

You might like the touristy bustle of the aforementioned ‘fleshpots’ but frankly I don’t and prefer to head for somewhere a bit more off the beaten track and thus quieter. I’d include Grasmere as one of the quieter spots, at least when the Wordsworth fans head home on an evening. There are a couple of smaller lakes here too - not sure about wild swimming in them, not my thing. They may be OK temperature wise in mid September but I always think hypothermia is an ever present risk in any of them!

Again, just off the top of my head thoughts. If you need me to answer any questions or give more detail, let me know and if I can I will! If I think of anything clever in the interim, I’ll post it here!

Ian

Thank you so much, Ian. I will show my husband the various options. Swimming is not mandatory for him, but he does enjoy it so much I like to offer the opportunity, especially wild swimming. I have only seen cold water bother him one time, in a lake at 10,000 feet in one of our US National Parks (Great Basin, which is worth a visit for a fantastic hike to ancient Bristlecone Pines (some nearly 4,000 years old) and a small glacier, the only one in the state of Nevada).

Your information on transport options, and your opinions about the touristy aspects of various villages in the Lake District is especially helpful.

Hi Lola -

Thank you for your praise lavished on me both here and on SusanF’s thread!

It’s always difficult giving concrete advice when you are not intimately acquainted with others’ personal preferences so all I tend to do is advise on the stuff I would prefer to do and places I’d prefer to go and hope that my biases chime with other folks and have faith that my judgement is sound. Other opinions are always available and equally valid!

And most of the stuff is fairly non specific here as there’s only room for generalisations (which is why I offer to be more specific once an itinerary is finalised, if required/needs be), but I do appreciate your kind words.

And it occurred to me to mention, as regards the Lakes, that south of Bowness is a chain hauled ferry which takes you across Windermere and on the other side a shortish walk, but steep climb, up the road takes you to Far Sawrey and Hill Top, once owned by Beatrix Potter, now open to visitors through the National Trust.

Ian

PS. Your description of the hike up to Great Basin makes me want to go to Nevada! I have done a whistle stop tour and hiked in several of the US National Parks (Zion, Brice, etc., etc) but the time available meant hiking was restricted to baby steps on our trip there, and I’d love to go back and do more before age and infirmity make further exploration impossible!