Yorkshire Walks

This morning I drove with two friends to the little hamlet of Wath in the Eden valley (map ref. NY 684051) and we parked on a gravel area off the road next to the underpass beneath the A685. As we got out of the car we were greeted by the bleating of a large flock of sheep about to be dipped. We walked a couple of hundred metres up the slip road to a track to our right that soon became a footpath across the fields to Weasdale. From the road to the east of Weasdale, we followed the track around the intake wall from map ref. NY 693038 to map ref NY 695028. Here we followed the quad-bike track on to the ridge and then along the ridge heading generally south for about 2km to the trig point on the summit of Green Bell at map ref.NY 699011. The top of Green Bell is about 4.5km from our start and all of it up hill. The view from here is tremendous. To the north is Cross Fell with the North Pennine skyline stretching eastwards from it, whilst to the west is the Lake District with the outline of many well known fells clearly visible from the Coniston range up through Scafell to Great Gable and beyond. To the south are the Yorkshire Dales with Whernside and Pen-y-ghent marking the horizon. From Green Bell we followed the ridge line to the cairn on the summit of Randygill Top at map ref NY 687000. There were a couple of walkers aleady there, sprawling comfortably against the cairn and we exchanged a few comments about the weather and our repective walking exploits before we continued on our way. We carefully negotiated the steep descent to the col at map ref SD 692998 and then climbed up to the top of Kensgriff at map ref SD 688993. We stopped here for a drink and a sandwich and to take in the full panorama of the view to the hills in every direction. We made our way down to the col between Kensgriff and Yarlside (map ref SD 686990)and then followed Little Randy Gill down into Bowderdale. Here we joined the bridleway in the valley and followed it northwards for about 5km to the hamlet of Bowderdale where we joined the road and followed it back to the car. The whole route is about 14km and took us just over 5 hours to walk including our stops. On the way home we made our usual tea shop stop, this time at the 'Pink Geranium' in Kirkby Stephen.