The Big Walks of the North by David Bathurst

Author:David Bathurst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summersdale Publishers Ltd
Published: 2011-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Langdon Beck to Dufton (12.6 miles) via Maize Beck

ENJOY: Cronkley Scar, Cauldron Snout, High Cup, Dufton Remarkably, your general direction of travel for this section is south-westwards, effectively taking you further away from your ultimate objective. A straightforward walk over grassland from Saur Hill Bridge brings you back to the Tees, which you now follow upstream for some two and a half miles, keeping the river to your left. Almost at once you pass the farm at Widdybanks, and can look across the river at this point to Cronkley Scar, a hill of jagged rock rising majestically beyond the fast-flowing waters. The riverside walk which follows will pose no navigation problems but does require some scrambling over boulders and scree around Falcon Clints. We stopped at one point along this part of the walk to admire a remarkably docile grouse; this bird, with its distinctive ‘go back’ call, is a common sight on the Pennine moors, and with many of these moors being used for grouse-shooting during the season, there are sometimes path diversions.

The riverside walk comes to a dramatic climax with Cauldron Snout, a magnificent cataract crashing down through the rocks on a channel of dolerite. You clamber through the boulders that border the cataract until you reach and cross a bridge high above the cascades, although before making the crossing you may wish to detour further upstream to inspect the infamous Cow Green reservoir, the construction of which in the 1960’s caused huge controversy. Its stark concrete dam wall, which can be seen from the Pennine Way, sits most uncomfortably with the natural surroundings. Having crossed the bridge, the Way leaves the Tees and follows a farm road as far as the farms of Birkdale, running parallel with Maize Beck, a tributary of the Tees. Having left Birkdale you ford Grain Beck and embark on a section of nondescript peaty moorland; this used to be one of the more infamous sections of the Way, but in recent years it has been improved and you should have few problems. Two miles from Birkdale you find yourself right beside the beck which you follow just south of west.

Your labours will soon be rewarded by your arrival at High Cupgill Head and what is perhaps the greatest moment on the whole walk. Suddenly, with no warning, the featureless moorland comes to an end, and the ground falls spectacularly away in front of you to reveal a fabulous view of the Vale of Eden with the mountains of Lakeland towering up behind. This is High Cup, consisting of a sweep of sheer whinstone cliffs to the right and the left, and, immediately ahead, a huge basin of grass and scree through which High Cup Gill flows. Some refer to this whole scene as High Cup Nick, but do so incorrectly, as the Nick is merely a cleft in the escarpment. The Way follows the right-hand sweep of cliffs, passing a pillar of basalt known as Nichol Chair and making a magnificent descent along a cairned route that arrives just below Peeping Hill.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.