486 Morton on Swale Description and Information | Walks in Ripon, Thirsk and Bedale areas

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486 Morton on Swale Description and Information

Written by the Wanderlust Team

Friday, 30 November 2007

Swell Swaledale

Distance: Two and a half miles.

General Location: Near Northallerton.

Start: Morton Bridge.

Right of Way: Public.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 302 Northallerton and Thirsk.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: June 2006.

Road Route: From York via the A1 or A19.

Car Parking: Carpark/lay-by immediately west of Morton Bridge. Free.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Pub - The Swaledale Arms, and garage with shop at Morton-on-Swale, possibly snack bar in lay-by.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Northallerton TIC 01609 776864.

Terrain: Riverside and farmland.

Points of interest: From the OS map circuit can be extended via Back Lane.

Difficulty: Easy.

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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Morton-on-Swale lies a little offset from its river, relating more to the A684, A1 to Northallerton road. The nearest part of the village to the water and the sturdy stone bridge is the old brick Manor House.

There are many miles of Swaleside path in upper Swaledale but hereabouts, 30 miles downriver in the lowlands, there are few, this walk is a rare treat.

We went with the flow, on the day the water was moving slow, steady and quite clear through steep or slumped ten-foot high banks that martins zipped between, with fresh willows either side and a steam of insects under overhanging branches.

We had done hardly a hundred yards, the farmer stopped his tractor, we talked, for an hour, a record for us, don’t usually major on people in the landscape, the best walk-chat for ages. Stephen Ward is an agronomist turned organic and was quick on the voodoo synergy and stealth of agrichemicals, stripped and damaged fields, his Galloway Angus shorthorns, the social implications of the Little House on the Prairie in the 21^st century and the ‘floating tanks’ - the barbell in the river.

A bit further on we came across his one-way dog gate. On the far bank is a pair of massive iron one-way flap valves on drainage pipes; this can be wet land, a tide line of drying sticks recorded a flood.

Little energy had been expended, nevertheless the shade of a sycamore encouraged a sandwich stop, and ‘if it were a bit warmer’ fantasies of swimming between long streamers of water crowfoot. This important plant has white flowers and nurtures snails, shrimp, larvae, nymphs and more.

A hare moved fast along the floodbank leaning into a long curve. Here the Swale held one swan and shaped a rookery in a stand of ash. Swalefields Farm was surrounded by a sea of rape; there's another farm that dominates a horizon. All too soon the footpath finished, we’d had our allocation and left the river for tracks with crops either side, the golden hanging barley, the sturdy green wheat.

West, if indistinct, were the Dales, east the rise of land to the southern end of the Hambleton Hills. Which reminds, I’m tending a tweaked Achilles, so going steep uphill is impossible - kicking dust on stone tracks, was going to allude to football boots but shan’t, don’t want to stumble into a Dan Quayle moment, and as the ex Vice President once said ‘the future will be better tomorrow’.

Grange Farm is behind a mound, Potter Lane track took us back by organic lettuce to watch stoats, an adult and three youngsters tumbling and diving on the riverbank. A rare sight, a wish for the return of agility, that nearly brought up more sport, but don’t get me wrong, am a fan, no ripe giant puffballs are safe.

Image Gallery

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