Wensleydale Waterfalls

By public transport:

At the time of writing the 157 bus operates from Bedale to Hawes, stopping at  the Wheatsheaf three times a day on schooldays and twice a day on other weekdays. In the other direction it operates four times a day on schooldays and three times a day other weekdays.

By car:

Go on the A684 to the turn to 'Aysgarth Falls National Park Centre'. Follow the road across the Ure bridge to the visitor centre and on for 2km in total to a T-junction where you go right 400m to Carperby village and the Wheatsheaf. 

To get to the A684 junction from the west go from M6 junction 37 to 900m after Aysgarth village. From the east take the A684 from Northallerton to 3km after Swinithwaite. From the south take the B6160 from Skipton as far as West Burton. immediately after the village, where the speed restriction ends, fork left, signed to Aysgarth. After 1.2km you reach the A684. Turn left for 300m. 

For a day trip you could use the paying car park at the visitor centre, which has toilets and refreshments. The Aysgarth Falls Youth Hostel lies at the junction of the A684 and the Carperby road, and would be convenient for these walks.

[1] Turn right out of the hotel. At the cross on the village green fork right past the Quaker burial ground, the school and the chapel (A). The road bears right to become a path between houses. Two gates lead to a green lane. Keep on through a yard and up through a long narrow field. Ahead of you are the screes of Ponderledge Scar. From a stile at the top of the field go diagonally left to another stile, then turn right uphill towards the ridge through two more long narrow fields. Behind you are the Height of Hazely and Harland Hill.

[2] At the gate at the top of the second field go left along a poorly marked path. After 40m at a disused cattle trough fed by a clay pipe veer right uphill through hummocks of mine waste to a field gate. This leads to an old quarry with piles of abandoned flagstones. Veer right uphill past a shallow outcrop of rock then go left through a wide wall gap. After 20m fork left downhill, then veer right and turn left through a gate into a broad meadow which you cross, guided by fingerposts. Ahead is a good view towards the head of the dale, and to your left the flat-topped peak of Addlebrough. On your right you pass the remains of a lead mine. 

[3] Keep on along the fingerposted bridlepath, veering right through a field gate to a footbridge by a ford.  Go left along a green lane to a triple fingerpost. Continue, signed “Askrigg Moor Rd 2 ³/₄ miles”, then go left through a field gate by a lone tree. Turn right up a rough track past a grove of trees and through two field gates to reach another patch of old mine waste tips. A third gate is ahead and, when nearing it there is a smaller gate to its left, ignore this smaller gate and go through the larger gate, follow the left hand wall past an animal pen to the next gate into a field, where you keep straight on to the next gate and keep following the wall. Here there is a fine view down to your destination - Askrigg - and the fells behind. Walk past 2 further gates, more animal pens and a derelict corrugated iron barn before reaching a final gate by a barn which brings you to a green lane.

[4] Ignore a left turn (Harr Gill), then after 40m take a fingerposted (Newbiggin) stile on the left and go diagonally right down the bank through two wide wall gaps and into a wood.  Keep on steeply downhill to the bottom of the wood then go right through the second field gate past a group of barns. Go diagonally left through three stiles then right along the wall to a stile, then diagonally left down to a gate into a house drive (Willow Garth). This is Newbiggin.

[5] Proceed to a tiny (but perfectly kept!) village green then keep on across the road and down the track to the left of the barn, fingerposted "Moor Road 1/4 ML"  and a wooden sign ‘Horrabank’ attached to the stone work above.. The track winds to the final barn, where it bends right and a green lane leads on. Ignore these, instead go left through a  stile and go diagonally right towards a barn on the skyline. Go through a stile 15m right of the barn and on through a wide wall gap. You can now see Askrigg again. Go through a stile down to a waymarked wall gap at the bottom right corner of the field. Follow the wall to a stile then go right past ‘Whitfield View’ on a track to Moor Road. Go left downhill to the village (B).

[6] At the road junction go right on Main Street (signed to Hawes) past the Crown Inn then the White Rose Hotel, Lodge Yard, the Manor House and the Kings Arms to reach St Oswald’s church (C). Fork right past the church onto the road which is still Main Street, but becomes Mill Lane. Just after the entrance to ‘Tote Hill’ you will come to four gates. Take the fingerposted stone-flagged path diagonally to the right to a disused mill building (D) and a gated stile.

[7] Keep on under the trough which once carried the mill’s water supply then go right signed ‘Mill Gill Force’. Follow the Paddock Beck up through trees then left across a footbridge and up to a stile into a meadow. Go right to another stile leading back into the wood then up steps to follow the wall up through the wood then down steps to reach a double fingerpost where you keep right to ‘Mill Gill Falls Only’ and over a plank bridge to the falls (E).

[8] Retrace your steps to the fingerpost and go right to ‘Whitfield Gill’. The path forks, the right leg leading to a lime kiln. Instead go left uphill to a fingerpost where you go right, again signed ‘Whitfield Gill’ through a stile into a field. Follow the right hand wall through a stile then through a second at the top of a bank to find a fingerpost.

[9] You can visit Whitfield Gill Force now (F), which is quite spectacular, but please note that the main fall is not easily viewed through the trees without scrambling down a steep bank. If you wish to visit the Force, turn left at the fingerpost to ‘Whitfield Gill’. Follow the beck for 450m past a stile to a fingerposted path junction. Go left, signed to the falls. You will reach the top of Whitfield Gill Force. Retrace your steps to the path junction and go left for ‘Low Straits Lane and Askrigg’. At the lower falls cross the beck by a footbridge and climb up the opposite bank to get another restricted view of the upper falls. Go on to a stile onto Low Straits Lane. Go right for 1km down the lane, ignoring a footpath to the right and a track right to a farm until you reach a stile signed ‘Askrigg ½ mile’. 

Otherwise, follow the fingerpost right, to ‘Askrigg via Low Straits Lane’. Go right to a footbridge across the beck, then on up the bank. Skirt the left hand end of the wall ahead then follow the fingerpost to ‘Low Straits’ along the wall to a field gate. Keep on along the farm access track, curving right to its junction with Low Straits Lane. Go right for 200m to a stile by a field gate signed ‘Askrigg ½ mile’.

[10] Go diagonally left down through two wall gaps, then ahead across a boggy patch to meet the left hand wall. Where the wall turns left, follow it down to a field gate in a sharp corner of the field. Keep on the same course towards the church, through 2 stiles then diagonally right to a third. Go right, downhill to another stile then to the bottom left hand corner of the next field where there are houses. A fifth stile to the right of a field gate gives access to a jitty to Mill Lane, opposite the school building. Be aware that there are various fingerposted routes leading to Askrigg and any of them are suitable but just head towards the church on arrival at the village.

[11] Turn left back to the church (C), which is worth a visit. Turn right between the village pump and the cross then cross the main road straight into the narrow street opposite (Silver Street), signed ‘Worton ¾, Aysgarth 4½’.  Where the lane forks, at the Old Smithy, go right to a field entry. Keep left down a green lane. At the end take the stile right and follow the left hand wall 200m to a stile then across to another stile onto the road (Low Gate). Cross directly over into Thwaite Holme Lane. Continue to a bridge by a ford and a barn. Go left through a field gate to a fingerpost.

[12] To visit Nappa Hall (G) - which is privately owned and not open to the public - go diagonally up to the field gate at the top corner of the field, then on the same course to another gate giving access to a track up to the house. Then retrace your steps to the ford  (although some people, unofficially, turn left after the first field gate and go directly down to a gate giving access to the railway track, then go left and continue from [13]).

Otherwise, go right at the fingerpost, signed ‘Woodhall and Aysgarth’. At the bottom corner of the field drop onto the trackbed of the Wensleydale Railway (J) and keep on.

[13] Ignore a gateway to the right, instead keeping on under an elegant cast iron overbridge. Where the track is blocked by a fence go left through a gate to a footbridge, then keep on over four stiles to reach a gate to the right of a new barn. Go left up Low Lane and through Woodhall. Where the lane curves left by Woodhall Coach House turn right along a waymarked lane  to a farm.

[14] Take the signed footpath to the left of the house and along a high wall to a field gate. Follow the left hand wall to a second gate, then to a ladder stile. To the right is Lady Hill with its copse of trees. The wall becomes a fence and on your left is a long low bank, marked on the map as a rabbit warren. Ignore a fingerpost pointing to the left. Instead keep on through a field gate at the corner of a wall. Go through a stile by a field gate, then cross a ladder stile and another stile. Skirt to the right of buildings to a stile onto the road (The Straights). Take care - no pavement.

[15] Go right across the bridge over the Eller Beck. 50m further on turn right signed ‘Aysgarth via footbridge over River Yore’. After 100m turn left up steps back onto the course of the old railway.  Go on for 400m, ignoring a footpath to the right, until you are forced off the trackbed.

Note: This next section is apparently an official deviation from the path shown on the map.

Keep on, ignoring a footpath to the left, to a stile in the opposite wall. Go diagonally right following the wall to a stile where you go right. Again follow the right hand wall past a fingerposted wall gap to a second gap. Go steeply downhill to a stile onto a lane.

[16] Cross over and go up steps into a field. Bear right to a high wall where there is a step stile. This is the back wall of Bear Park. Go right past a tennis court to a stile then drop down between some fine trees to the right hand fence line, then through a stile and between the old railway bridge abutments. Go left parallel to the course of the railway then diverge right downhill. At the bottom, go right through wooden gates to Aysgarth High Force (H). Keep children under control here.

[17] Return to the gates then turn right back to the road.  Turn right onto the bridge to view the falls from above. Take care - there is no pavement and there are blind bends. Opposite is Yore Mill (I). Cross back over the bridge and take the pedestrian walkway signed ‘National Park Centre’. Go through the car park past the centre to return to the road. There are toilets and refreshments here.

To visit the Middle and Lower Force go right down the pedestrian walkway then cross the road carefully to a double wicket gate. Follow the trail right through trees to a flight of stairs down to a viewing platform onto the Middle Force. Continue down the trail 400m to a right turn to another viewing platform onto the Lower Force. Continue to the river bank keeping children under control here then turn right up to the trail and retrace your steps to the gate and go right uphill.

Otherwise go left uphill under the railway bridge and past the entrance to the Wensleydale Railway station (J), which is open for refreshments on occasion, but is not operational at the time of writing.

[18] After 10m go right through a gate signed ‘Carperby Village’ onto a winding muddy path through trees which is partially surfaced. After about 30m a grass path comes in from the left. Ignore this, going right then almost immediately left where the grass path goes straight on, to reach a stile into a field. Bear right across the field to a squeeze in the far wall then on the same course to another squeeze at the far right hand corner of the next field. Keep on the same course to a stile then cross a wall line to an isolated waymark right of the barn to a stile in the far right hand corner of the field. Go left to a stile onto Low Lane.

[19] Cross the lane find a stile on the right, signed ‘Carperby Village’. Go up the field, through a wall gap and past a fingerpost to the far right hand corner where you go right through a wall gap then left over a sleeper bridge to return to the Wheatsheaf.    

 (A) Carperby Village and the Wheatsheaf

Carperby is a small village having a hotel but no shops. A detailed description of all the buildings is given in its conservation area appraisal.

See: http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/pdfs/appraisals/carperby.pdf

The Wheatsheaf is famous nowadays as the hotel where James Herriott had his honeymoon. The relevant visitor’s book is displayed in the bar and in the hotel proper is an amusing letter written to Herriott’s father after the event.

(B) Askrigg Village

Askrigg is an exceptionally pretty village with the White Rose Hotel and two pub/restaurants, the Crown Inn and the Kings Arms. Turner the artist visited the latter for a day in 1816, and it doubled as the ‘Drovers Arms’ in ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.

Lodge Yard was built as racehorse stables in 1752 by John Pratt, and after a chequered history is now a set of holiday homes owned by the Holiday Property Bond. Pratt also built the King’s Arms and the Manor House (which is now a B&B).

By the church entrance there is a market cross erected in 1830, a stone pump and an iron bull ring set into the cobbles. The bull ring dates from the 18th century and earlier, when bulls would be tied here and then attacked or baited with dogs. A local historian wrote that “it used to be a custom in Askrigg for a man who wanted to fight to go and turn the bull ring over; if another man was feeling the same, he came and turned it back and they had a fight.”

(C) St Oswald’s Church

St. Oswald (605 - 641), King of Northumbria from 633 A.D. until his death, is credited with introducing Christianity into his kingdom.  He lived in turbulent times which he seems to have done little to pacify:  he spent some of his adolescence in exile at Iona Abbey following the death of his father in battle against the East Anglians, and he was himself killed in like manner, twenty-five years later, fighting the Mercians at Oswestry (Oswald's Tree). 

The church is peculiar in that the columns on either side of the nave differ, indicating a rebuilding at some stage in its history. The windows also differ, even though they are supposed to have been replaced in Victorian times.

The continuous nave and chancel couple roof, which must obviously be contemporary with the clerestory. is one of the best church roofs in the area.  It is very low pitched and distinguished by finely moulded purlins halfway up the pitch, principal rafters, and ridge-piece.

The church contains a minor wall monument to John Pratt (d. 1783), amongst others.

Taken from http://english-church-architecture.net/north%20yorkshire/askrigg/askrigg.htm

(D) Askrigg Mill

An early to mid-19th century watermill with an overshot waterwheel formerly fed by an elevated zinc pentrough supported on stone piers. It was originally a corn mill and a corn drying kiln survives on the ground floor. It then became a saw mill run by William Handley Burton (1853-1937) who specialised in making hay rakes. He decided to use the water supply for the mill, Mill Gill Force, to generate electricity. By 1909 he was offering to light Askrigg’s streets although it took a year for the Parish Council to agree. By 1910 he had installed a dam above Mill Gill Force and was piping water to a power house containing a Gilkes Vortex Special turbine. It produced enough power to light the mill and provide street and house lighting in Askrigg. Burton and his sons formed the Askrigg Electric Lighting Company and installed hydroelectric schemes around the Dales. The company continued until the National Grid arrived in Askrigg in 1949. Burton’s son Ernest and his nephew William both ended up working for the nationalised industry.

From: http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/record.asp?id=511

(E) Mill Gill Force

For an informal description of the local rocks see: http://mwggyorkshire.webspace.virginmedia.com/pdf/askriggtrip.pdf.

(F) Whitfield Gill Force

For a superb photo of Whitfield Gill Force see Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tall-guy/4483653443/

(G) Nappa Hall

The house at Nappa was built about 1459, and consists of a hall facing south between two embattled towers, and approached through a porch, which was probably also embattled. The west tower is about 50 feet high, and the walls are four feet thick ; the east tower being 36 feet high, with walls three feet thick. At the south-east corner of the west tower a circular staircase in the thickness of the wall reaches to the top of the battlements, and by this staircase access was gained from the ground floor, which was the great parlour, to the three upper floors. The floors of the two upper chambers have been removed.

Nappa was the ancestral home of the Metcalfes in Wensleydale, and which, next to Bolton Castle, is the most important of the ancient homesteads in the dale. It is not known when the family first appeared in Wensleydale, but they were certainly there in the 13th century. James Metcalfe took part in the French campaign in 1415, and was a Captain at the battle of Agincourt. His home was then at Worton in Wensleydale, and there is no doubt that he went out at the instance of Sir Richard Scrope, of Bolton, who gave him the Nappa estate. James’ descendant Thomas Metcalfe speculated in the disastrous South Sea Company, which broke in 1720, and the house passed to Thomas Weddell, a kinsman, and afterwards to Earl de Grey, whose younger daughter and co-heiress, Lady Mary Vyner, of Newby Hall, Ripon, became the owner.

We are told that Mary, Queen of Scots, passed two nights at Nappa Hall during the time of her imprisonment at Bolton Castle, and that she left a pair of hawking-gloves and an autograph letter addressed to one of the Metcalfes. The gloves are traditionally stated to have been presented by the Queen to Lord Scrope on her leaving Bolton Castle, and that they descended through the Crossfields or Stuarts to George Dinsdale, of Nappa, whose relative, J. M. Barwick, Esq., of Low Ball, Yeadon, now owns them. But this is disputed.

This has been extracted from a very complete history at:

http://thedales.org.uk/nappa-hall-and-the-metcalfes-of-wensleydale/

The history is completed in an interesting Yorkshire Post article

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/the-battle-to-own-nappa-hall-1-2325260

In 1889 the house was occupied by the Metcalfes again and in 1930 they bought it back from the Vyners. In 2008 William Metcalfe put the house onto the open market for the first time in its history and it was bought by a Mr Mark Thompson. It is in a dilapidated state and needs much restoration.

(H) Aysgarth Force

Aysgarth Force is a triple flight of waterfalls surrounded by forest and farmland, carved out by the River Ure over an almost a one-mile stretch on its descent to mid-Wensleydale. The falls are quite spectacular during wet weather, as thousands of gallons of water cascade over the series of broad limestone steps consisting of horizontal layers of hard limestone separated by thin bands of soft shale. These rocks are part of the Yoredale geological series that were laid down on the sea floor over 300 million years ago, while the falls themselves are a product of the Ice Age.

Aysgarth Falls have attracted visitors for over 200 years;  Ruskin, Turner and Wordsworth visited, all enthusing about the falls’ outstanding beauty. The upper and middle fall was featured in the film Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves.

(I) Yore Mill

Yore is an archaic spelling for the river Ure. Yore Mill is a four-storey, Grade II listed building, built in 1784 by Birkbecks from Settle. It is of considerable historical interest, being one of the earliest examples of industrialisation in a rural setting.

Water flows from the river by way of a stone race at the upper of three large waterfalls. The race channels the water behind the Mill, originally to turn a water wheel that drove the mechanisms within the building. Originally, the Mill served as a cotton mill. In 1852 the Mill burned down and the interior was destroyed. It was rebuilt the following year, an extra storey high and twice the original length and width. The upper storeys accommodated carding and spinning of knitting yarn. This finished in 1870.

The worsted produced at the mill was given out to knitters in the dale to make into stockings and jerseys.
When machine goods came in, over seven thousand of the jerseys were left on the hands of the knitters for several years. Eventually they were dyed and sent to Italy to become redcoats for Garibaldi’s’ army.

In the lower storey corn grinding continued until after the second World War. The Mill was converted in 1912 into a flour-rolling plant, and in 1937 two Gilks and Gilchrist water turbines, that are still in place, replaced the water wheel, and the latest milling machinery was installed. Flour production ceased in 1958 and the Mill was used as a cattle food depot until it changed ownership in 1969. The mill then became home to the Carriage Museum., now apparently defunct. The mill now houses a tearoom.

In the earlier part of this century a portion of the mill premises was occupied for school purposes, and was known as the Yore Mills Academy. The Academy was established by John Drummond, a man of great scholarship, who was lineally descended from the unfortunate Earls of Perth, who lost their estates through being implicated in the Stuart rebellion last century.

As a schoolmaster John Drummonds attainments were undoubtedly considerable, and much in advance of his time; as a mathematician he was widely known, and had few equals. He was also a skilled land-surveyor, and an accomplished artist and engraver. He was a member of the Bristol Mathematical Society, and three years in succession he won the first prize (which no-one else ever achieved) for mathematical problems originated by that society.

Extracted from: http://thedales.org.uk/aysgarth/yore-mill-aysgarth/

(J) The Wensleydale Railway

The original line between Northallerton and Hawes took 30 years to complete by the North Eastern Railway, from 1848 to 1878. The Midland completed the route to Hawes Junction (later Garsdale) on the then new Settle and Carlisle line in 1878.

Having lost its passenger services in 1954, and almost half its route mileage by the early 1960s, the line survived until 1992 by carrying limestone from Redmire to the smelters on Teesside. When that traffic finished, the MOD decided to use the line for the occasional transport of military vehicles, something which continues to this day, and this kept the line alive long enough for the Wensleydale Railway Association (formed in 1990) to build support and eventually form a company to take a 100 year lease on the 22 miles of line from Northallerton to Redmire.

The line reopened to passenger traffic from Leeming Bar to Leyburn in 2003, and to Northallerton in 2013.

In the longer term, it is intended to rebuild the line west of Redmire to Castle Bolton, Aysgarth, Hawes and eventually Garsdale on the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway. The Railway is run largely by volunteers, supported by a small paid staff, and you can help by becoming a member of the Wensleydale Railway Association or the Wensleydale Railway Trust. 

See: http://www.wensleydalerail.com/

Where not defined as 'ladder' or 'squeeze' the great majority of the stiles mentioned are of the gated variety with wide gaps, and are easy to negotiate.

Thanks are due to Jo and Peter Trodden of Lichfield Ramblers for preparing this route and organising the visit during which it was walked.