Carperby to Bolton Castle and Aysgarth Falls.

By bus: At the time of writing the 157 bus operates from Bedale to Hawes, stopping at  the Wheatsheaf Inn 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 Visitor Centre'.  Follow the road across the Ure bridge, past the entrance 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 Hotel.  If not staying at the Hotel there is a small car park (honesty box) in front of the Village Hall at the east end of the village.

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 pay and display car park at the Visitor Centre, which has toilets and refreshments. As alternatives the pay and display car park at the National Park Visitor Centre could be used as a start/finish point as could the villages of Bolton Castle or Redmire where on street parking may be available. 

The Aysgarth Falls Youth Hostel lies at the junction of the A684 and the Carperby road, and would be convenient for this and other walks in the area.

[1] With the Wheatsheaf Hotel (A) behind you turn left and after 100m turn left onto Hargill Lane.  There is an information board here about Carperby East End.  After 600m ignore a footpath to the left, then 50m further on bear right up the bank by a fingerpost marked ‘Castle Bolton 2’.  Follow the right hand wall up the track to a field gate and fingerpost ‘Castle Bolton 1 ½ ’. After 40m fork left on a path which curves slightly left to a gated stile by a field gate.  Go ahead downhill to cross a footbridge on a track which curves right uphill.  After approx. 150m as the path levels out pick up and follow the right hand wall.  In about 400m the track turns right through a gate in the wall and drops down to a ford.  It then curves left to a field gate.  Ahead on the horizon are the remains of Redmire Quarry, Redmire Moor and the chimney of Cobscar Smelting Mill.  Turn right and follow the wall to a field gate by cowsheds. Keep on through five gates to a copse which conceals Bolton Castle. Continue on the track through the copse and two more field gates to reach Bolton Castle (B). There are toilets and refreshments (mid February until end October) here. 

[2] Keep on past the castle along the extended village green. At the end fork right passing the Village Hall on your right then turn sharp right down a track, signed ‘Public Footpath to Redmire’. Go through a kissing gate onto a farm track then through a squeeze stile then down a field 50m to another squeeze stile on the left signed ‘Redmire’. Go diagonally right to a gated squeeze then on the same course to a gated stile. Continue in same direction downhill to a footbridge by the trackbed of the old Wensleydale Railway. Ignore a path alongside the railway. Instead cross the trackbed and over a stile in the fence, noticing the severe damage done to the ash embankment by rabbits!  Go diagonally left downhill, cross a stream and through a squeeze stile at the corner of a wall.  Follow the right hand wall past a gap then cross a footbridge. Go right 10m to a squeeze stile, then cross over a track and field to another.  Bear left then right round a garden wall to a third then go down an alley to reach Hargill Lane. This is Redmire. Go right to the Bolton Arms (B&B, food and real ale) then follow round to the left. Ahead is a huge sycamore tree and a monument commemorating Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.  Take the first right following the road as it jinks right then left and narrows. At this point go through a field gate signed ‘public footpath’ to the far right corner of the where there is a gated stile onto the road.  Go right 250m - carefully - there are no pavements - to a bridge over the Apedale Beck.

[3] After another 100m turn left onto a track marked ‘Low Thoresby only’. The track crosses the bed of the Beldon Beck, with a clapper bridge adjacent.  At Low Thoresby farm the track degrades into a quite muddy, nettle-infested in places path signed ‘Carperby Low Lane 1¼ mile ’. Pass a ruined barn on your left and after 700m ignore a path to the left, instead going on over a small beck then through a gate and on to a stile by a field gate to follow the right-hand fence. To your right is High Thoresby Farm. Where the fence turns right, keep on, signed to ‘Aysgarth’, following the left-hand wall to a waymarked field gate, then keep on along the right-hand wall.  After 100m, at a multiple fingerpost, bear diagonally left gently uphill signed ‘Aysgarth 1 mi’  to a step stile also signed ‘Aysgarth Falls 1 mile’. Bear left on vehicle tracks to a gate by a field gate.

[4] Bear left onto a track through a field gate and on through Hollins House Farm then through two more field gates to a broad meadow.  Continue downhill to a wicket gate then follow the fence on a muddy path 100m to a path junction where you turn left steeply downhill to a gated stile onto the bank of the Ure. Go right along the riverbank. At a fork go down steps to a viewing platform over Aysgarth Lower Force (C).  Go on 20m to reach the riverbank - keep control of children here - then another 20m to a path up through the trees marked ‘return path’.  Turn left onto the main trail then after 400m there is a set of steps down to a viewing platform over the Middle Force.  Return and again go left on the main trail past carved seats to reach the road by the rightmost of two sets of wicket gates. Cross the road with care and go up the pedestrian walkway opposite to the National Park Visitor Centre, where toilets and refreshments are available.  Go through the car park to the other end then left down another walkway to reach the bridge over the Ure.  There is a good view of the Upper Force from the far side of the bridge, where there is also Yore Mill (D).  Take care here - no pavements and blind bends. Return over the bridge then go left through the gates and 50m on the left are the falls. Again, keep control of children here.

[5] Retrace your steps through the visitor centre car park. Information, Toilets and refreshments are available here. Cross the road and turn left.  Go up under the railway bridge. Just after is the entrance to the Wensleydale Railway station (E). 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, go right then almost immediately left where the grass path goes straight on to reach a gated 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 then on to a stile in the far right hand corner of the field. Go left to a gated stile onto Low Lane.

(A) 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 Inn 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) Bolton Castle is one of the country’s best preserved medieval castles; originally built as one of the finest and most luxurious homes in the land, the castle bears the scars of over 600 years of fascinating history. The castle is still in the private ownership of Lord Bolton, the direct descendant of the castle’s original owner Sir Richard le Scrope.

The castle was built between 1378 and 1399 by Richard le Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton and Chancellor of England.  In 1536 Sir John Scrope, 8th Baron supported the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against the religious reforms of Henry VIII and gave Adam Sedbar, Abbot of Jervaulx sanctuary in the castle.  In consequence John Scrope had to flee to Skipton pursued by the King's men but Abbot Sedbar was caught and executed.  In retribution the King ordered Bolton Castle to be torched, causing extensive damage.  Within a few years the damage had been repaired and Sir John had regained his seat in Parliament.

Mary Queen of Scots stayed at Bolton for six months. After her defeat in Scotland at the Battle of Langside in 1568 she fled to England, posing a threat to the position of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Mary was initially held at Carlisle Castle under the watch of Henry Scrope, 9th Baron, but Carlisle proved unsuitable and in July 1568 Mary was moved to Bolton.  Mary was given Henry Scrope's own apartments in the South-West tower.  Of her retinue of 51 knights, servants and ladies-in-waiting only 30 of her men and six ladies-in-waiting were able to stay in the castle, the rest taking lodgings nearby.   Her household included cooks, grooms, hairdresser, embroiderer, apothecary, physician and surgeon. Bolton Castle was not initially suitable for housing a Queen, so tapestries, rugs and furniture were borrowed from local houses and nearby Barnard Castle in County Durham. Queen Elizabeth herself loaned some pewter vessels as well as a copper kettle.

Mary was allowed to wander the surrounding lands and often went hunting.  Her prime occupation while at the castle was having her hair done by her friend Mary Seton.  Sir Francis Knollys, whom Mary nicknamed 'Schoolmaster', taught her English, as she only spoke French, Latin and the Scots Language.  She even met with local Catholics, something for which Knollys and Scrope were severely reprimanded.  In January 1569 Mary left Bolton Castle for the last time, being taken to Tutbury in Staffordshire where she spent much of the 18 years before her execution in 1587

Bolton Castle provides a huge range of exciting things to do. From family days out to educational trips and historic tours you will find a raft of sights, sounds and smells which bring the castle to life and make for a truly memorable trip.

(C) 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.

(D) 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. I t 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.  An out building of t he 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 (Jacobite) rebellions of the 17th 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/

(E) 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/

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