Yorkshire Dales Walks
Langerton Hill
Date: 8th June 2014
Distance: 5.3 miles
Ascent: 843 feet
Time: 2 hours 20 mins
With: On my own
Start Grid Ref: SE031610
Walk Summary:
A walk from Burnsall on to the modest height of Langerton Hill before circling above Barben Beck and enjoying a nice return via Kail Lane.
Route Summary: Burnsall - Skuff Lane - Raikes Farm - Langerton Hill - Turf Gate House - Dibble's Bridge - Appletreewick Pasture - Kail Lane - Dales Way - Bunsall
Photos: Click on the photos below to enlarge.
Walk Detail: After a frustrating weekend, where my walking plans had been foiled by a mixture of illness, poor weather and family commitments, there was a small window of opportunity for me to pop out for a short walk late on Sunday afternoon. With little pre-planning I chose this walk from Paul Hannon's 'Wharfedale' walking guide.
Strangely, for all the walking I've done in the Yorkshire Dales I have never done a walk from Burnsall, one of the most popular villages in the Dales, in fact I can only remember driving through it once. It is certainly a pretty village situated as it is on a wide bend in the River Wharfe with the slopes of Thorpe Fell towering above the village to the west. Whilst the view of Thorpe Fell was to inspire my next walk the object of this trip out was the much more modest Langerton Hill.
After crossing the impressive Burnsall Bridge and a short stretch alongside the Wharfe a short steep climb brought me up to Skuff Road. After crossing a couple of meadows a path to the left of Raikes Farm then took me up on to the upper slopes of Langerton Hill. A short detour off the right of way brought me to the trig point one of only three in the Yorkshire Dales National Park that I hadn't yet visited.
Unfortunately, after a quite lovely day, the cloud had begun to build up almost from the moment I'd arrived at Burnsall. It now began to rain on and off for most of the rest of the walk, a slightly underwhelming route above the steep sided valley of Barben Beck. The ground underfoot was fairly easy apart from one section Appletreewick Pasture where the path disappeared for a while in an area that had been ground up by cattle.
Never very happy in close proximity to cattle I was at pleased that the resident cows were higher up the pasture well away from the path. That was until I approached the southern end of the pasture. At this point the resident herd, which included a bull, cows and several calves, all decided to go on the move and block the exit. There was no way I was going to try and walk right through that group so I had to climb a couple of walls to get back on the path.
Thankfully leaving the cows behind I arrived at a crossroads. I was originally going to continue on to Appletreewick but I had to be back home for 8pm and time was getting on so I decided to turn right along Kail Lane. This proved to be a good decision, not only because it was a quicker route back to Burnsall, but also because Kail Lane proved to be by far the finest part of the walk with some nice views, especially across to Thorpe Fell. At the foot of Kail Lane I crossed a minor road to reach the Dales Way which I followed the short way back to Burnsall.
While it was good to finally visit the area around Burnsall and to bag the trig point on Langerton Hill it has to be said this wasn't one of the finest walks I've done in the Dales. This was largely because most of the route was in sheep and cattle pastures. Having said that the section along Kail Lane was very enjoyable and as mentioned earlier the views of Thorpe Fell gave me the idea for a much more interesting walk which I tried out a few days later.
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