The Yoredale Way, an interesting walking trail in the wondrous Yorkshire Dales

Someone rang the other day to book a holiday, as you lovely people tend to do, in fact it was two Country Hideaways holidays, two consecutive weeks to be precise. The first week was in Lion Cottage in Bainbridge and the second at Holly Tree Cottage in East Witton. We got on talking about the Yorkshire Dales and walking and the beautiful scenery but then he mentioned the reason as to why the two weeks in two different cottages. Apparently he and his wife were intending to walk two parts of the Yoredale Way. Now, never having heard of the Yoredale Way, I needed to know more!

We’ve all heard of the Pennine Way, probably the Dales Way, maybe the Six Dales Way or the High Dales but not the Yoredale Way. The trail starts in Kirkby Stephen up onto the Mallerstang and to find the source of the River Ure and onward down in to Wensleydale finishing 73 miles later at Boroughbridge. They were doing the stretches from Askrigg to MIddleham and then from Middleham to Masham. I was concerned about them returning to the cottage after a days walking but he was completely unfazed by this and said they would return by public transport as both cottages are on the bus route. ‘But a whole week to do two short stretches?’ I asked. His reply ‘We like to pick our day, the one with the best weather forecast but we also like to explore where we are staying too’ What a lovely thing to do though, rather than trying to do a full trail which can be quite a task if you’re not used to long distances and to take a more leisurely, laid back approach to the whole thing. They prefer to do small chunks and then return at a later date to do more of their chosen walk. In this way they have completed quite a few over the years.

So, a little bit of investigation followed. After ‘Googling’ The Yoredale Way I found there was a little booklet by Stuart W Greig you can send off for, which I duly ordered, but also found The Long Distance Walkers Association which has so many trails listed I’m sure you could spend a lifetime walking and you would never complete them all. I’m looking forward to making a start and I hope you are too! Perhaps we will pass the time of day whilst walking the trails and footpaths of this wonderful part of the world sometime soon! You’ll find our cottages are quite close to most trails in the Yorkshire Dales, if you need any help you know who to call!