479 Barden Moor, Bolton Abbey Description and Information | Wharfedale - lower

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479 Barden Moor, Bolton Abbey Description and Information

Written by the Wanderlust Team

Saturday, 09 February 2008

Moor - no less

Distance: Five and a half miles.

General Location: Yorkshire Dales.

Start: Three miles from Bolton Abbey.

Right of Way: Open Access Land. Check for Open Access Restrictions on www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL2 Yorkshire Dales southern and western areas.

Dogs: Not legal.

Date walked: Friday 5 May 2006.

Road Route: Bolton Abbey, north on B6160 for 2½ miles, just before Barden sign turn left signed ‘Embsay Dales Railway’, one mile plus, cattlegrid, 200 yards to unsigned carpark area on left.

Car Parking: Free.

Lavatories: Bolton Abbey.

Refreshments: Bolton Abbey pub and cafes and The Priest’s House tearoom and restaurant by Barden Tower.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Tel, 01756 718009, www.boltonabbey.com.

Terrain: Moor.

Points of interest: Bolton Abbey Estates have won National Park's award for their environment, access and shooting mix.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk

Please click the image below to go to the walking route sketch map and detailed directions, or scroll down to a Google Map of the route, the route description, and an image gallery. Plus you can bookmark this page on your favourite social bookmarking site, and comment on the walk. We hope you enjoy the walk.

Googlemap

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Barden Moor is new territory for me, have sampled many of the pleasures of the Bolton Abbey Estate but never this zone a mile to the west of the River Wharfe, despite the fact that it looks out at you from the map with two big blue eyes, the twin reservoirs on today’s walk.

Lower Barden Reservoir was visible almost from the start, down in the valley, a hollow in the moor, a track took us there, through fifty percent heather cover and under a sky eighty percent blue.

From the first corner of the triangular water we skirted one waterside, saw fisherpeople, safe to say men, small butterflies in mating dance, the intense spectrum of the violets, geese honking overhead, and as regards floaters and paddlers - but a single family of geese, a ménage à trois of three adults and a dozen goslings.

The moor was quiet, just the crunch of boots on gravel as we set a pace and found a rhythm for the next mile of so, a steady climb that takes a twist round a gully and then straightens to reveal, half a mile away, the level horizon of the earth embanked dam of Upper Barden Reservoir.

In contrast to the other one this emitted a real racket from seagulls galore milling round an ornate valve tower, ‘upwards of 1000 pairs of Black-headed Gulls and 600 pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls’ breed here it reads in one of my bird books.

Halfway across the half mile dam there is a place of symmetry, sit with backs to the wall eyes to the sun, behind a low stone wall the water splashing yards away, and centre stage in the distance the lower reservoir and beyond the heights of Barden Fell and its noticeable outcrops. This is the sandwich stop.

We said goodbye to the gulls, and chose a way down, and were lucky. A grass track now and one that contours nearly all the way back holding an altitude around one thousand feet, grand walking. There's a kink in the line to round a beck named Hutchen Gill and a little dip and climb to cross the next beck that is imaginatively named Near Hutchen Gill, and then were nearly done, a last mile.

When you’re back do have a look at the Priest’s House Restaurant and Tea Rooms, they are just along the road, right by a big old ruin called Barden Tower, a 12^th century Forest Lodge.

Image Gallery

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