South Pennine Walks

Otley Chevin

Date: 7th January 2012
Distance: 2.0 miles
Ascent: 470 feet
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
With: Lisa and Rhiannon
Start Grid Ref: SD972499

Walk Summary:
A short, scenic and muddy family walk on Otley Chevin with some nice views of lower Wharfedale.

Route Summary: East Chevin Quarry - White House - The Chevin - Spooner Lane - East Chevin Road - East Chevin Quarry

Pictures:

1. The view across Lower Wharfedale to Almscliff Crag

2. The girls walking through the woods by East Chevin Quarry

3. Otley

4. The path we followed to the top of The Chevin

5. Me and Rhiannon on The Chevin

6. The rocks on the top of The Chevin

7. Looking along the crest of The Chevin

8. Some of the flowering gorse we saw

9. Lisa and Rhiannon walking down Spooner Lane

Walk Detail: We'd planned to do this short family walk on Boxing Day but as it had started raining quite hard just after setting off we decided to cancel. At the second attempt there were still showers forecast though fortunately all we caught was a few minutes of drizzle.

It was however very windy and the paths were also very muddy neither of which were to Rhiannon's liking. It has to be said though that she wasn't too keen on even getting out of the car to begin with. Once we did get started though she soon began to have fun playing hide and seek in the trees as we slowly made our way to the White House.

Just passed the White House we took a very steep set of steps to climb up out of the trees. The path was very slippery with mud and Rhiannon told me off, as only an imperious 4 year old can do, for bringing her out when it was muddy. We mollified her half way up by stopping for a picnic.

The views of Lower Wharfedale from the top of The Chevin were superb and we all enjoyed the walk along the crest of the hill before heading back to the car by Spooner Lane and then a short stretch of East Chevin Road. At a few points during the walk I was surprised to see quite a lot of flowering gorse though apparently it is not uncommon for it to flower in winter.

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