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12 February
2003
Arncliffe, River Skirfare, Street Gate, Yew Cogar Scar
Littondale
Map:
OS Explorer OL10 Yorkshire Dales Western area at 1:25000
This
morning four of us met at the village green in Arncliffe in Littondale
(map ref. SD 932718) at about 10.00. We took the path by the church
to the riverside and walked downstream for about 3km to Out Gang
Lane where we left the river Skirfare and walked the 300m up the
lane to the main road along the valley. We turned back up the
valley for about 200m to the farm road on our left to Arncliffe
Cote. The farm road and the track beyond the farm onto the hills
are a permissive path running for about 6km to Street Gate near
Malham Tarn. The combination of limestone hills and the heavy
Pennine rainfall has sculpted this whole area into an amazing
mixture of limestone cliffs, limestone pavements, steep valleys
and waterfalls.
It's a wonderful place to walk. About 2km from Arncliffe Cote
we stopped to look at the waterfall on Cote Gill with a view down
Cote Gill back into Littondale itself. We continued to Street
Gate where we turned onto the bridleway heading north along the
stone farm road towards Middle House Farm. Just before the farm
the path goes over a stile to climb the hill. About 0.5km from
the stile we took the right hand fork in the path which forms
the Monk's Road above Yew Cogar Scar. The path is following the
steep sided valley of Cowside Beck back to Arncliffe. The whole
route was about 16km and took us about five and a half hours to
complete including our refreshment stops.

The
church in Arncliffe
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River
Skirfare looking up Littondale
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Looking
up Cowside Beck with
Fountains Fell in the distance
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Looking
down Cowside Beck
to Arncliffe in Littondale
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