Walk 2 :- Leyburn Shawl

Following the Craster walk, the requests came thick and fast for another one. It was decided to keep the distance the same length at 7 miles. It's quite difficult to find a location where the refreshment stops are in the middle third of the walk & at the end. After much searching on the internet for such establishments & the purchase of some cheap tea shop walk books from Amazon ( oh how the street cred has gone down hill...fast - i do hope that none of my mountaineering friends read this blog !!). This walk started at the village of Wensley (Wensleydale, North Yorkshire) and followed a kind of anticlockwise upside down triangular route to Leyburn & Preston under Scar. The first part of the walk was mainly gentle ascent across farmland and under the Wensleydale railway to the village of Leyburn. It seemed like a good point to stop for a late coffee break. We all settled on the back patio of a B&B/ teashop where there was a resident friendly dog.

I think we all got to know very quickly why........ there was a bite to be had. The weather forecast wasn't great for the day which beforehand was a bit of a worry in my mind for how the rest of the group would deal with that. Thankfully, this was the only point in the day that a shower came. As the table i was on were the last to be served, we had the opportunity to run inside & find the remaining table to enjoy the snack in the dry.

Toasted teacake with butter or rather butter with a toasted teacake. Very good it was too. On leaving the cafe, Leyburn Shawl was signposted just over the road and this part of the walk started in what seemed like a park. Gradually as we walked, the Shawl walk and view became more prominent as the cliffs were more visible to the left hand side. One of the recurring features of the walk was the unusual stiles through the wall. Although not entirely seen in this shot, the tree in the background was a bit unusual as from one particular angle most of the left hand side of it was missing.

The view along Wensleydale became clearer the further west we walked. The photograph below is of Penhill through the trees on the other side of the dale.

After a lunch stop with sandwiches, it was time to descend from the dizzy heights...

...through farmland to Preston under scar. It was rumoured that there was a teashop here but that turned out to be not the case as there wasn't even a shop. I don't think the group were that bothered as we just had lunch, but a walk leader has to think of every eventuality in situations like this !!

The return route cut through more fields & lost a bit more height to the level crossing on the Wensleydale railway. The photograph below is taken just after this point with the railway shown in the foreground and Leyburn Shawl / cliffs in the background.

As the paths turned into farm roads,we gathered up a bit of speed but unfortunately we were stopped in our tracks as we were hit with a bit of on coming traffic going for milking.

Just around the corner was Bolton Hall & a tree lined estate road leading us back to the entrance at the gates on the main road where the cars were parked.

After changing the boots, it was time for refreshments & we seemed to fill / take over the main room of the three horse shoe inn just over the road. Another good day out where the weather held out again for most of the day. I have already some questions being asked me about the date of the next walk.