Jenny Twigg and her Daughter Tib - a circular walk from Ramsgill
Upper Nidderdale offers a fantastic network of green lanes, open to walkers, riders,
cyclists and off-road vehicles - this walk takes it one of the finest. And contrary
to the doom-mongering from narrow minded self-interest groups like the Ramblers
Association, there's plenty of room for everyone to enjoy them. In fact, I'm a damn
sight happier to see a couple of motorbikes being skilfully ridden down a track,
than I am to see some endlessly gabbling multi-coloured horde of ramblers heading
towards me. And do these chelping nits ever shut up? I don't think so. What's the
point in going for a peaceful walk if you're surrounded by people continually nattering
about nothing. It's like an open-air version of Big Brother for wrinklies. Give
me trail riders any day.
I started this walk by parking in Ramsgill alongside the little green at the northen
end. There's parking there for half a dozen cars, but if that's full go over the
bridge and turn right down the road to Bouthwaite and there's room to park on the
right. And conveniently enough that's the first part of the walk, over the
bridge and down the road to Bouthwaite, one of those incredibly pretty little hamlets
that Nidderdale does so well. It has a delightful Bethel Wesleyan Chapel dating
from 1880 which is now, as so many are, a private home. I don't know if it's because
I was brought up as a methodist, but whenever I come across one of these little
chapels it feels uplifting. Strange or what?
From Bouthwaite the road becomes unmetalled, and carries on straight up the hill
onto Covill House Moor. It's a bit of a climb, but worth it, because the upland
scenery here is just fantastic. Typical dales moorland, but criss-crossed with good
wide tracks, so really easy to walk over. After a few hundred yards, just before the very top of
the hill, there's a left turn onto another good track that heads
North(ish) running parallel to Nidderdale. It's hard to miss as it's clearly marked
"unsuitable for motors". I've often wondered who puts these pointless signs up.
It's not "motors not allowed" because they are, and it's not "suitable for off-road
vehicles only" which would be more accurate. I suppose it's just a typical British
fudge of; well cars are allowed, but we don't really want them, so let's just try and put them off shall we. I mean if anybody's got to this junction in a car, then
by definition they must have a suitable car to tackle this road. Still, I suppose
putting these silly signs up keeps some faceless planner gorging from the public
purse until they reach middle-age and can retire, whilst wealth creators like myself
have to struggle on working into old-age to pay for it all.
The road/track heading North is another great piece of easy walking with fantastic
views. It continues along past the corner of Helks Wood, down a little dip and over
a very impressive stone bridge. Once over the bridge, you can see the rocks of Sypeland
Crags dominating the skyline to the right. That's the next port of call on the walk,
and is the start of the only part of the walk over open moorland. As you get parallel
with the crags, go through one of the gates in the wall, and clamber up through
the moorland to the rocks. This part of the walk is access land and dogs aren't
allowed, so dog owners will have to carry on along the track to rejoin the walk
near the Lofthouse to Leighton road. Open moorland like this can be heavy going,
and quite unpleasant when it's rained a lot, but in Summer it's OK, and it's only
a few hundred yards anyway. This area is also managed for shooting with lots of nesting
Grouse, so don't be surprised to put a few up as you walk.
Reaching the crags is quite an achievement, and it was here on a blisteringly hot
Summer's day that I stopped for a good long break. The views are mind-blowing and
you probably won't see another human being for miles. I was also cursing at this
point, because the BBC had forecast "overcast with sunny intervals and some showers"
and it turned out to be the hottest day of the year. So there I was with a rucksack
full of waterproofs, no suntan lotion, and very little water. If I hadn't had a
hat I could have been in real trouble. Thank you the BBC.
From
the rocks you can't see Jenny Twigg, so I decided to have a little practice and
make sure I could still take and follow a compass bearing, so off I set off on round
about 345 degrees and started steadfastly marching over the moor. But after fifty
yards I crested the ridge and could see Jenny Twigg anyway, and it was another moorland
scramble the few hundred yards to get there. Nobody seems to know how the
rocks got their name, but they are very dramatic landscape features - though quite
bleak and foreboding so nothing like as good a picnic site as Sypeland Crags. Just
dwelling on the name, I always thought Twigg was a Sheffield/Derbyshire name, which
makes this an even stranger name to come across in the Dales.
To the North-West of Jenny Twigg is a line of Grouse Butts, which very usefully
head due North to the track which goes back to the Lofthouse to Leighton road, the
next landmark on the walk. So follow the grouse butts to the stone built shooting
hut and turn left down the track all the way downhill to the road. Bizarrely enough,
when I was there, there were four blokes in shell suits in one of the grouse butts.
Now't stranger than folk as they say.
Because this area is managed for shooting, it may be a good idea to check for restrictions
in advance. But if you insist on walking while a shoot is in progress, try to co-operate
with the shooters as they do tend to be very nice people and they put a lot of effor
into managing the moor in return for a few days of sport. You only have to
look at the shocking state of Ilkley Moor to see what happens when local councillors
decide they can manage moorland better than shooters. And please don't get paranoid,
if you do blunder into a shoot remember that the effective range of a 12 bore with
shot is well under 300m.
From the road, turn left and take the bridleway about two hundred yards downhill
on the right. This continues along the escarpment along the edge of the valley,
giving marvellous views along the valley up to Scar House Reservoir. Once again
it's great walking. I continued for about a mile and a half along here until the
escarpment started to trend Westwards and then took the footpath down to Thwaite
House. Alternatively, you can cut a couple of miles off the walk by descending
from the shooting house (a few hundred yards from the road) down to Thrope Farm. The
shooting house is hard to miss as it's stone built with a tower.
Whichever way you come down from the escarpment, you end up on the Nidderdale Way,
a lovely footpath along the valley bottom, which leads back first to Lofthouse and
then on to Ramsgill. Delighful easy walking and signposted all the way. I'm not
going to bother describing it as you can't go wrong following a marked long-distance
footpath along the bottom of a valley.
If you do feel the need to stop for refreshments on the way, Lofthouse is a good
choice as there's a farm shop selling home made Ice Cream, and The Crown serves
a fine pint of Black Sheep with a lovely beer garden to sit out in. The war memorial
fountain is well worth a look too; I wish I'd made a note of the inscriptions as
they're really quite lovely.
Finally, an apology for the quality of photographs. When my ancient Canon Powershot
died in 2007 I replaced it with a Nikon Coolpix P4. This piece of rubbish has produced
photos of total blandness for a year now, so lacking in definition they're
about on a par with a Kodak Instamatic. I have now binned the wretched thing
and replaced it with another Canon Powershot (a G9 this time) which straight out
of the box has produced photos incomparably better than the Nikon.