Yorkshire Dales Walks
Fremington Edge
Date: 1st October 2005
Distance: 8.7 miles
Ascent: 1305 feet
Time: 3 hours 40 mins
With: Lisa
Start Grid Ref: SE038993
Walk Summary:
My first excursion into Arkengarthdale was this lovely walk along the dramatic Fremington Edge.
Route Summary: Reeth - Castle Farm - Heggs House - Fremington Edge - Marrick Moor - New Close Bank - Grinton Bridge - Reeth
Pictures:
1. Fremington Edge from Reeth village green
2. The lower slopes of Fremington Edge
3. Above Arkle Beck with Calver Hill behind me
4. Looking along Arkengarthdale towards Great Pinseat
5. The northern end of Fremington Edge
6. The top of Fremington Edge overlooking Arkengarthdale
7. Arkengarthdale from Fremington Edge
8. Looking across the valley to Calver Hill
9. Fremington Edge with Booze Moor in the distance
10. Enjoying the views
11. Lisa heading south along Fremington Edge
12. Looking down to Reeth
13. The trig point on Marrick Moor
Walk Detail: After a stressful week at work exacerbated by recurring stomach pains and headaches I desperately needed to get out for a walk especially as I'd missed out the previous weekend. I'd been wanting to go back to Swaledale for sometime and having bought the Hannon book the week before I had a number of walks I wanted to do. I liked the idea of Fremington Edge and thought it would be a good one for Lisa to do as well. As it happened we didn't follow Hannon's route at all because I wanted to go to both Fremington Edge Top and the trig point on Marrick Moor.
The road from Leyburn to Reeth, passing the army training grounds across wild moorland, was quite lovely and we caught a fantastic rainbow over Reeth and Fremington Edge as we descended into Swaledale. The actual walk itself did not start too auspiciously as my original planned route was scuppered by a footpath closure, I then had to go through a few fields of cows, which I always dislike. When we then couldn't extend Lisa's walking poles and it started to rain I began to lose heart.
However the bridleway we followed was, despite being muddy, quite a pleasant traverse just above the valley and gave good views across to the shapely Calver Hill as well as along the length of Arkengarthdale. This was my first visit to Arkengarthdale and when the sun broke through to shine on the north end of the valley and on Great Pinseat I fell in love with it.
The climb up Fremington Edge was short and sharp giving increasingly good views as height was gained. After following the wall a little while we climbed over a gate to visit the cairn on Fremington Edge Top. It is situated very close to the edge itself and had superb views. It was also very windy and we were buffeted about while we tried to take photos.
At the top we noticed an obvious path which skirted the edge so we followed this for a marvellous mile before finally returning to the wall. When we did so we were greeted by the completely contrasting scenery of the beautiful virgin heather of Marrick Moor. From an exciting edge walk we were suddenly transported to a fine moorland path perfect for striding along.
The highlight of the brief diversion to the Marrick Moor trig was the view towards Skelton Moor and the Marske Valley though in truth it was not one of the more inspiring sites the Ordnance Survey chose for one of their ubiquitous columns.
On the way back to Reeth we managed to incorporate a short section of walking alongside the River Swale, a nice end to what had been a grand walk.
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