24 May 2003
Bainbridge, Cam High Road, Marsett, Semer Water
Wensleydale
Map: OS Explorer OL30 Yorkshire Dales Northern & Central areas 1:25000

This morning Vi and I drove up Wensleydale to Bainbridge and parked next to the village green. The weather was quite changeable but the cloud had some good breaks so we set off at about11.00 am hoping to dodge the showers. We left the village from map ref. SD 934900 on a footpath that climbs up following the river Bain up stream on the western bank to a farm called Gill Edge. Here we turned left onto a minor road for a few hundred metres to map ref. SD 925895 where the Cam High Road (an old Roman Road) starts. There is a fine view up Wensleydale from the Cam High Road at this point but what we saw was not encouraging. There was a heavy shower driving down the valley towards us. It arrived in just a few minutes, barely time to get the waterproofs on. We followed the Cam High Road for about 3.5km, crossing the minor road that runs from Countersett to Burtersett. After about half an hour the rain stopped it the sun came out so we took the opportunity to sit on a grassy bank and have our lunch with a pleasant view down Wensleydale to Askrigg. After our break we continued to map ref. SD 895878 where we turned left on to a footpath straight down the valley side to Marsett Bridge. We crossed the bridge to the village and took the track along the bank of Marsett Beck to map ref. SD 912859 and here we turned left to follow the footpath to Semer Water. After about 600m we came to the ruins of the old Staling Busk parish church. A new Parish church was opened in the village in 1908 and this church fell in to disuse and is now completely ruined. It was built in the early 1700's to replace an earlier church on the same site. After a look round the ruins we continued on to Low Bean Farm at the end of Semer Water. We turned left on to the road to Semer Water Bridge. Here we turned on to a bridleway along side the river. We followed the bridleway and then a footpath along the eastern bank of the river for about 3km back into Bainbridge. We arrived in the village at about 4.00pm and installed ourselves in the Old Corn Mill tea shop.It was very pleasant and quite a few other walkers had the same idea - well it was a bank holiday. The whole route was about 15km and took us five hours including our lunch stop.