This morning my neighbour, Jim, and I drove to Semer Water, a natural lake in Raydale. Raydale is a side valley that joins Wensleydale at Bainbridge. We parked in the gravel car park at the end of the lake (map ref. SD 922875) and started walking at about 10.30 It was a fine bright day but forecast to cloud over later. We walked a few hundred metres along the road towards the north eastern corner of the lake and took the footpath across the fields, down the side of the lake towards Stalling Busk. We did not climb the hill to Stalling Busk itself, but instead we kept to the path over a footbridge to join a track to the village of Marsett. In Marsett we crossed the bridge over Marsett Beck and imediately turned left to follow the path upstream beside the beck. The beck changes its name to Bardale Beck and we continued up the valley for about 5km to the road at map ref. SD 862846. The path climbs all the way and is quite steep in places. We turned right onto the road and followed it towards Hawes. After about 1km we turned right onto the Cam High Road and ancient green road that is suffering a bit from use by off road vehicles. We walked along the Cam High Road for about 3.5km to map ref. SD 886873. Here we turned onto a bridleway for about 3km. to join the road above Countersett. We walked down the road for about 1.5km back to the car park at the end of the lake. Overall the route was about 14km and took us almost 5 hours including a couple of stops. With hindsight I think it would be better to walk the route the oposite way round. That way the big climb would be at the beginning and although quite steep, is not too long. After that the route is quite gentle and the views down the valley of Bardale Beck over Semer Water to Addlebrough Hill are wonderful. The highest point on the route is about 600m.

Looking south west from Marsett Beck

Swaledale ewes waiting to be fed above Bardale Beck
gap

Looking up Raydale from the bridleway above Countersett

Looking down on Semer Water from above Countersett