Yorkshire Dales Walks
Booze Moor & Hoove
Date: 16th October 2010
Distance: 11.2 miles
Ascent: 1422 feet
Time: 6 hours
With: Matt
Start Grid Ref: NZ005024
Walk Summary:
An exploration of the moors, including Hoove, above Arkengarthdale in the north east corner of the Yorkshire Dales.
Route Summary: Langthwaite - Slei Gill - Booze Moor - Arndale Hill - Hoove Tarn - Elsey Crag - Hoove - The Howl - Faggergill - Kitley Hill - High Eskeleth - Langthwaite
Pictures:
1. Slei Gill
2. Looking down Slei Gill to Calver Hill
3. A grasshopper that landed on my map case
4. Looking across to Fremington Edge from the head of Slei Gill
5. Hoove from Booze Moor
6. Matt on Peat Moor Hill, the summit of Booze Moor
7. Approaching Arndale Hill across Arndale Bog
8. Matt by the large cairn on Arndale Hill
9. Crossing back into North Yorkshire from Durham
10. The reedy pool of Hoove Tarn
11. Silhouette of me standing on the Fryingpan Stone
12. Looking back to Elsey Crag and the Fryingpan Stone
13. Matt navigating the peat hags and groughs
14. By the trig point on Hoove
15. Heather burning on Arkengarthdale Moor
16. Matt approaching Kitley Hill
17. Hoove from Kitley Hill
18. Booze Moor from Low Moor
19. Looking north along Arkengarthdale
20. Scar House
Walk Detail: We began this walk in the small village of Langthwaite, famous to people of a certain age as the set of the TV series 'All Creatures Great and Small'. A wide path initially took us south along the eastern bank of Arkle Beck before we swung north to follow a pleasant grassy path that leads to the head of Slei Gill. This was probably the most pleasant stretch of the walk with much evidence of the lead mining that was such a feature of this area of the Dales.
Upon reaching the bridleway at the head of the gill we struck out across heathery Booze Moor to reach the first summit of the day. Up until this point it had been fairly cloudy but just as we were approaching the trig point the sun broke through to light up the moors quite beautifully.
From Booze Moor we followed the watershed towards the road summit at Stang Top just short of which we made a detour to visit the large cairn on Arndale Hill. Arndale provided some good views to the east where we could make out the outline of the Cleveland Hills, along with High Volts Wind Farm to the west of Hartlepool and what I assume was Hartlepool Power Station.
From Arndale Hill we crossed over the road at the North Yorkshire / Durham border. The section between the road and Hoove showed all the signs of being heavily managed for grouse shooting and numerous channels had been cut across the moor, presumably to help drainage. Unfortunately this seems to have also had an adverse effect on Hoove Tarn which is now a rather sad looking affair which has been fenced off, presumably to stop hapless sheep and shooters from accidentally wandering into what is really now just a reedy bog.
Before visiting the summit we wandered across an area of peat hags to Elsey Crag, which though quite modest did have one outcrop worthy of the name crag and which we both assumed to be the Fryingpan Stone that is marked on the OS map. After both taking a turn at scrambling up on to the stone we took shelter amongst some of the smaller rocks to eat a long overdue lunch.
Revived by a slice each of fidget pie we finally arrived at the trig point on Hoove before heading south in the direction of the 554m summit that is recorded on the 1:50,000 OS Landranger map but not on the more detailed 1:25,000 OS Explorer map. With Hoove I had now visited all the Dewey and Marilyn tops in the Yorkshire Dales though the ambiguity of exactly where the highest point was made this something of an anti-climax for me.
From Hoove we descended north into Faggergill, another side valley scarred by the remains of the lead mining industry before heading back to Langthwaite via a short detour on to the top of Kitley Hill where another break in the clouds brought us some late autumn afternoon sunshine to enjoy the views of Arkengarthdale.
While this walk certainly had points of interest it also involved some quite tough walking over pathless moorland. For this latter reason I probably wouldn't recommended it except to the more devoted peak baggers or to experienced walkers who like that kind of thing.
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