Exploring the Dales mining past

THIS is not a waymarked route and I relied on the OS map, with its field boundaries, to show me the way.

With the help of such a map you can see that the path should cross the middle of a field, or head for a wall corner, etc. Read it with care and you should soon find your way again, even if it means retracing your steps.

I'd gone wrong because I made a detour around the far side of a large field to avoid having to cross the path of a solitary cow and its young calf. In such circumstances cows can sometimes become protective.

When I returned to what should have been the route, I realised I'd missed a vital stile and had to recap.

I'd begun at Yarnbury, that cluster of homes at the end of a narrow lane above Grassington built in the early 19th century and associated with the lead mining industry that thrived there and has long gone, but has left a major mark on the landscape.

As I followed the path through the fields, past the remains of bell pits and quarries, I made a detour to find what is marked on the map as a henge.

It turned out to be a rather fine example, a circular, banked ditch created thousands of years ago, long before the miners moved in, for reasons that no-one understands.

More fields and some detailed map reading later, I found myself crossing the broad track known as Tinker's Lane and admiring the fine view southwards across the Wharfe valley.

Soon afterwards I was picking my way through the attractive group of houses of Hole Bottom to join the track running up Hebden Gill, beside Hebden Beck.

This stretch of the route - and, indeed, all of the rest of the walk - was marked with reminders of the mining industry which operated in this area from the Iron Age, expanding in the 16th century and really getting into its stride in the early decades of the 19th century.

There are ruined buildings, a pit that once held a water wheel, ruined mine shafts that are best avoided, shaft entrances with gates fitted to keep the public out, and the remains of stone pillars.

Up on the hillside, viewed from the track as it snakes away from the gill and climbs back towards Yarnbury, are a house which was disguised as a chapel for a film version of Wuthering Heights, a tall chimney, and a strange, concrete-looking construction dating from just after the Second World War when the spoil heaps were re-worked for a while.

All along this last stretch of the route, information boards explained the sights to be seen: the bell pits, indentations formed after vertical shafts were sunk, ore was extracted and then the shafts were filled in again, though with less material than had come out; the powder house; the circular track where the horses walked day after day turning the wheel that pumped the water out of the mine.

We think of Grassington as being a pretty tourist village surrounded by tranquil Wharefedale countryside.

This walk serves as a reminder that it was once a busy working town, one of many across the Dales that grew to serve the needs of an extensive mining industry.

Step by step

From end of lane at Yarnbury, walk back down road briefly and opposite gate to Yarnbury Lodge go left through squeeze stile into field. With back to stile, walk half right, passing bell pits on way to another stile in wall corner. From here, again go half right to another stile in wall at far side of field.

Go through this stile to look at henge, then return through it and turn right, walking along wall side (wall on right) to pass quarries and eventually arrive at gated stile in wall corner, with another wall coming in at an angle from right slightly further on.

Continue with wall still on right to another gate stile in it, into another field.

Walk diagonally across this field to ladder stile. Continue diagonally right across next field to another ladder stile in facing wall near field corner.

Keep on in similar line across next field to gated stile beside field gate.

Over this stile, follow green path to cross broader track (Tinkers' Lane) and continue down towards wall corner on left. Turn left here and follow wall (on right), veering left away from it before bottom corner to head for gate stile with barn in valley bottom beyond. Drop half left down field, passing through fence line (which might or might not have a wooden stile in it) and then going over a wall stile a dozen yards to left of gate in facing wall beyond.

Continue half left to small gate in wall on left above barn. Go through this and walk ahead, past left of barn, to another stile into lane at Hole Bottom.

Go right briefly, past houses, then with row of cottages ahead go left in front of them and through gate with "Bridleway to Yarnbury 2m" on it. Follow track across Hebden Beck and up far side of it, passing through several gates and abandoned mine workings to arrive eventually at point where Bolton Gill comes in from right.

Immediately past this, ford beck and turn right to go through gate.

Follow beckside track as it winds back across beck then recrosses it before heading up through spoil heaps and snaking up hillside. Where track swings left and another forks right, through a gate, follow that right one and continue with it through more mine workings to return to Yarnbury.

Distance: 4 miles (approx two hours)

Going: moderate, a couple of hills and a few stiles

Map: OS Outdoor Leisure 10, Yorkshire Dales Southern area

Toilets and refreshments in Grassington

Please respect the countryside and private land. Anyone embarking on these walks does so at their own risk and the Craven Herald can take no responsibility for the complete accuracy of the route .