Dales Way - Day 1 - Ilkley to Grassington

Tuesday 1st September 2020

Day 1 Ilkley to Grassington

Our first stage took us from Ilkley to Grassington following the River Wharfe through villages such as Addingham and Burnsall, with visits to Bolton Abbey and The Strid. The terrain was largely on well-made riverside paths with no significant ascent, with the exception of our detour to The Craven Arms at Appletreewick.

A lovely walk alongside the beautiful River Wharfe with plenty to keep us entertained all along the way.

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Distance: 19.4 miles

Duration: 8:30 hours

Ascent: 1736 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

Accompanied By: Davy, Paul & Brian

Weather: Warm & Sunny

3D outline of route

Parking

The start of this years long distance walk (2020) - Hastily arranged for September after our Pennine Way walk had to be cancelled due to the pandemic back in July

The 'Stress Family Robinson' representative in his crisis management role

Addingham Church (St Peters). The path actually goes through the churchyard.

Back to the river near Addingham

And one posh caravan site !

Stunning photo's of the River Wharfe in the sunshine - I've had to limit the number of river shots that I've uploaded as there was just so many

Gentle walking throughout the day

Idyllic day all round

Some folk enjoy less energetic hobbies - didn't see anyone catch anything all week though !

Just stunning

Why not pop into a 17th century Quaker House

Time to cool off and enjoy 5 minutes of peaceful reflection - and to put our names in the visitors book

An hour or two into the walk we managed to miss the turning onto the B6160 (which I still insist wasn't signposted) and proceeded to trudge around the route of the old railway line to Bolton Abbey Station before re-joining the path at Bolton Abbey.

Back on track at the impressive Bolton Abbey after a cream tea at the Bolton Abbey Tea Rooms

We took the easy route over the bridge - one of these poor chaps fell in moments after taking this photo - we obviously made the right choice

We chose to take the higher path away from the abbey although the likelihood is that the lower level path was the official Dales Way path. Didn't matter as both ended up at the same place anyway. To be honest, the signage around the Abbey area was particularly poor, navigation isn't difficult, but the odd sign or two would help the many walkers that do the Dales Way. It's as if the usual signposts for a LDW get in the way of all the Abbey forestry walks and local directions - so they have all been removed for tourist reasons and walkers have to work it out for themselves.

Before leaving the Abbey comforts - we enjoyed our packed lunches by the river with the ducks. One of our party took the relaxation a bit too far, so we left him snoring away as we pressed on into the woods.

Approaching The Strid

Apparently The Strid is a really dangerous place ! You fall in and you won't get back out due to the underground caverns and currents.

Looked harmless enough, but I guess that's the reason many people have come to grief.

Not too close now.

Back on the riverside path approching Barden Scale. There was a one way system in place (Covid reasons) - so we had to stay on the south side of the river - No worries.