Yorkshire Walks

Merrygill viaduct on the Stainmore railway

It is a steep climb and a path on the right allowed us to stay off to the road for a while. Soon the Stainmore line was reached and we turned right to cross over the Merrygill viaduct, followed shortly by the Podgill viaduct. The path is excellent along this section of the old railway bed and some items of the Poetry Path can be seen as inscriptions in stone. We exited the rail route by crossing the Millennium Bridge to Station Road which led to the A685 where we turned left to pass over the old rail route and continue (with care - traffic!) to the right of way on the right. This led to a footbridge over the line where some ancient rolling stock is parked. The right of way ends at a track that leads to Greenriggs farm by turning left.

Today we took a couple of gambles to attempt a walk which I had been considering for a while. First we trusted the weather forecast and second we assumed that a footpath would run all or most of the length of the old Stainmore line from Smardale Bridge. The focus of my interest was the 3 restored viaducts (Smardale Gill, Podgill and Merrygill) on the late-lamented Stainmore line, with the bonus of the Smardale viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle line. We left the south end of the free car park in Kirkby Stephen, map ref. NY772087, by turning left down a path towards the town centre, crossing Faraday Road and through the alleyway to Market Street and onwards down Stoneshot to cross Frank's Bridge. There we took the right path along the R. Eden and climbed up a narrow tarmac path to join Hartley Lane which led into Hartley where we turned left and then hard right to join the road leading to Hartley quarry.

Verse on the Kirkby Stephen Poetry Path

Smardale Fell above Smardale Bridge

Smardale Lime Kilns & Nature trail

Here I glimpsed a redstart before we passed under the impressive Smardale viaduct on the Settle-to-Carlisle line. At Smardale we briefly had to leave the railway track bed for the parallel road but were able to resume it at map ref. NY743083.

At the farm the Coast-to-Coast path is picked up and is followed over Smardale Fell for the next 3 miles to beyond Smardale Bridge . At map ref. NY722062 we finally left the C-to-C to join the Stainmore line with ancient lime kilns, the awesome Smardale Gill viaduct and a wildlife reserve with a profusion of butterflies, particularly the Scotch Argus.

Smardale Gill National Nature Reserve

Scotch Argus butterfly at Smardale Gill