Pateley Bridge to Carlton-in-Coverdale

30 June 2011 - Pateley Bridge to Carlton-in-Coverdale

Distance - 19 miles

Weather - Showers, some heavy

We stayed at - Middleham House, Carleton-in-Coverdale, Leyburn, North Yorks, DL8 4BB Cost - £70.00

Today we wandered up Nidderdale, following the river - you guessed it - the Nidd. We'd heard that the pub in Carlton was shut, so we bought cheese rolls for our tea in Pateley Bridge. The woman in the shop asked where we were walking to, and when she heard Coverdale she said, "What? Today? Hmm!"

The first five miles or so passed quickly, along Gouthwaite Reservoir. We had a little bit of rain, but by the time we reached the hotel at Ramsgill, it was warm again. Sadly the hotel wasn't open till 12:00 and we weren't going to hang around for half an hour. It looked like they only had one real beer on anyway. Too posh for their own good, we reckoned! We toddled the two miles to Lofthouse, which was much better and open!

Loo signs at Lofthouse

Gents loo at Lofthouse

We had some beer and lunch there. Alistair says the pub has an interesting Gents loo, which is out the front door and up the road. It has no roof and is, as the barman said, both listing and listed. I think he meant listed for preservation rather than demolition, but I couldn't tell. He asked where we were going, and when he looked at the map, he said, 'Ooh, you're going STRAIGHT over the moor! Hmmmmm!"

Scar House reservoir in distance

Nidderdale is a particularly nice dale, with views aplenty. The next part took us to a bend in the the dale, where we could see the end, with the Scar House reservoir and its dam coming into sight. Apparently this is the largest masonry-built dam in the world or Britain or something. Anyway, overlooking it is Whernside, one of the dales' 'three peaks' and instantly recognisable (once you know what it looks like.) The sides of Nidderdale become steep along here, so, naturally, this was the point we went up to the top, where there is a substantial track along the edge.

There aren't may paths from Nidderdale to Coverdale, so our next move was to cross the moor using a public right of way. No-one had mentioned to the moor that there was a right of way, however, and we had to battle through open grouse moors with no track. It was a learning experience. We learned that old heather is the worst to walk through. Recently burnt heather is painful, as you get stabbed by charcoal. Heather somewhere in between is easier, but has invisible grouse to make you jump when they fly away. Around each burnt area is a meter wide zone, where the heather was trimmed to stop the fire spreading, and this was the easiest to walk on. If the ground wasn't one of these stages, it was lush green, which meant it was a bog.

Needless to say this two mile section seemed to last longer than the other seventeen miles put together and yes, it started to pour halfway over. We were lucky in a couple of respects, the visibility remained good and it hadn't rained for a long time so the bogs and streams were actually not bad.

Coming down from the moor

At long last we came to the edge, where there was an easy-to walk along fence, then a grassy track, then a stoney track. These were all put there for the people who shoot the grouse, so we forgave them -slightly - for putting the heather there in the first place.

It was a bit of a trudge down to our accommodation, made worse when we realised the village we thought was Carlton wasn't. Carlton, was another mile up the other side of Coverdale. The B&B had a great room for us, with a view towards the moors we came down from. Alistair was lucky in that Thursday was the day the village has a chip van, and he was able to augment his cheese roll with some illicitly bought chips. I wasn't feeling all that great and so didn't need chips.