This
weekend we stayed in a lovely cottage call "Stable Court"
about 6km from Barnard Castle in Upper Teesdale, with two of my
wife's sisters and their husbands. On Saturday the ladies went
to Barnard Castle whilst we three brothers-in-law went for a good
walk. The weather was poor, overcast grey skies with sleety drizzle.
We drove to the car park at Bowlees (map ref. NY907282) next to
the visitor centre and museum. From the car park we crossed the
footbridge over Bow Lee Beck and turned right through a gate behind
the visitor centre into the woods. We followed the path through
the woods for about 1km to map ref. NY 906290 where there is a
stile through the wall into some rough pasture. We headed northwards
for about 200m to another stile in a wall. This took us into open
access land overlooking the confluence of two streams in steep
sided valleys which join to form Bow Lee Beck.
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Moorland stream running into the woods above Bowlees
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Scattered farmsteads at Ettersgill seen from Ashdub
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At
this point (map ref. NY 906292) we turned left to follow
a public footpath across the rough hillside to a farm
called Ashdub. There is little sign of the path on the
ground and it's best to check the direction with your
compass. The path is on a bearing of 282 degrees magnetic,
allowing for a magnetic variation of 3 degrees west.
After about 2km on this path across the exposed hillside
in the sleet we reached Ashdub as the weather cleared
a little.
Crossing Ettersgill beck below Ashdub
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Swaledale tupps near Ettersgill
We
followed a path from Ashdub to cross Ettersgill Beck
and climb up to the road at map ref. NY 884293. We walked
up the road towards Ettersgill for about 200m and turned
left off the road to follow a path up the hill to join
a track at map ref. NY 880292. We then followed the
track which became a tarmac road after about 500m.
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Just
after the start of the road we passed a disused Primitive
Methodist Chapel with all the windows boarded up. The
road led us down to a road junction at map ref. NY 871294
where the was a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel - still in
use.
Track
across the fields at Moor Riggs
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Disused Primitive Methodist Chapel at Moor Riggs
I was brought up in a Methodist family (my dad was a
local preacher) although I no longer have any religious
leanings. I thought how sad it is that all the religion
I know of are split into factions who all believe that
they have the one true revelation of God's purpose.
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River Tees from the Pennine Way bridge crossing below Cronkley
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Following the Pennine Way up the rocky hill at Cronkley
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Any
way enough philosophy, we crossed the road and took
the track opposite that led us to a bridge over the
River Tees at map ref. NY 861293.
Quarry next to the river Tees above High Force
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The river Tees crashing over High Force
Here we joined the Pennine Way route which we followed
back along the River Tees for about 6km to Wynch Bridge
at Low Force. On the way we passed High Force, a really
spectacular water fall on the river Tees.
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High Force seen from the Pennine Way
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High Force seen from the Pennine Way
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At
Low Force, a series of smaller falls on the River Tees, we
stopped to watch a group of canoeist with their instructors.
They were shooting each of the falls in turn - the highest
looks to be about 3m. It looked very exciting to do and some
of them capsized and rolled to right themselves as they landed
in the pool below the highest fall.
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Shooting the falls at Low Force
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Above:
Shooting the falls at Low Force
Left:
Sheep sculptures on the approach to Wynch Bridge
From Wynch
Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge, we crossed the river
and made our way over the fields to Bowlees and back to the
car park. The whole walk had been about 13.5km and had taken
us four and a half hours to walk including a stop for lunch
in the shelter of a wall corner.
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