Still at Danby Wiske, we take advice from Wynn regarding another nice walk. Jervaulx Abbey and a river-side path on the south bank of the River Ure is recommended. The Ure, for some unknown (to me) reason, flows through Wensleydale, not Uredale. Other rivers in the Dales are properly organised. The Swale in Swaledale, the Nidd in Nidderdale, the Wharfe in Wharfedale etc..
More research is needed!
It transpires that Uredale, or Yoredale, was indeed the original name for the valley. It was renamed Wensleydale after the village of Wensley, which was once the area’s most important market town. Cistercian monks established Jervaulx Abbey in the Dale in the 12th century. They are credited with introducing Wensleydale cheese production using sheep’s milk.
We pack a flask and some goodies and off we go. Jervaux Abbey is well past it’s sell by date. A ruin of it’s former self!
Glenda and university friend, Sarah, looking cool amongst the ruins.
A model of what the Abbey may once have looked like – or not, as the case may be!
Anyway, we find no path to the river from the grounds. Try further down the road. It appears that there is some private land between the Abbey and the river.
Here we go – a signpost.
Ahh, it’s another of these long walks each of which we are doing a short section! The Six Dales Walk. It’s 38 miles long connecting Middleham in the north (a few miles from Jervaulx) with Otley in the south (near Ilkley of “Moor with no Hat” fame!). We are planning to walk a very short section “northwards” to the Cover Bridge Inn for a coffee – or maybe a beer!
Preparation…
The river-side walk…
Picnic site selection….
Coffee and flapjack courtesy of Church Holme Campsite!
Time for a bit of shelter and hasty retreat!
But look who’s watching us from the river bank! The ghost of the River Ure!
(Turn photo sideways for a different perspective!)
We did visit the Cover Bridge Inn briefly – by car on the way home. What I still can’t fully understand is how we missed a visit to the Brymor icecream factory – just a couple of miles further down the valley at High Jervaulx!
A major error in the detailed planning of the day!
On our way home, we took a lesser travelled route. One that took us off the narrow roads… onto the even narrower ones. This brought us to a totally unannounced road closure. Two, in fact. One at either end of a 20 metre piece of perfectly ordinary road. Maybe with a pot hole or two – but nothing out of the ordinary!
The person who had just installed the barriers was heading off up the road as we arrived. Probably off to put up “road closed” signs! Well, we are reluctant to make a 25 mile detour back the way we came. The option was to move a couple of bollards and signs and sidle through. Of course, if we had done that, we would have had to replace the obstructions before moving off! Enough said!
One evening we entertained Wynn and Sarah for dinner in the caravan. (They were both Geography student colleagues of Glenda at Newcastle University about 60 years ago!). (Sadly, the event went unrecorded photographically.)
Wynn then had us to his house for another delicious meal. Probably our last visit to Thornton le Moor as Wynn is moving to Oxfordshire later this month.
Another evening, the four of us went to the Wellington Heifer in Ainderby Steeple.for dinner…
We visited Ian, Sarah’s husband, in Mount Vale nursing home several times. He is doing well there and on one occasion while we were there, Ian was being dynamically organised by Clare, his daughter. Clare and her sisters are working well together to support their parents in the different ways the situation dictates. Ian particularly loves to have Maddie the Labrador visit him in the home. We just wish we lived closer, so we could add our support.
The next day, we are back on the trail – doing another three miles of the Coast to Coast. Again in the wrong direction!
Church Holme Campsite should come with a health warning. Every morning Vicky bakes a cake (different every day!) and fruit flapjack. Diets are NOT us! Our tuck-shop bill when we left was an astonishing £250 – well, not quite maybe!
One thing we learnt was that if we wanted a couple of slices of calories, we had to act quickly. No dilly-dallying about in the showers. Priorities have to be focused! Delicious!
A day trip to Richmond, a couple of meals with Sarah, and our time in Danby Wiske drew to a close. Will our lovely new caravan start falling to pieces. You will have to wait for the next exciting installment to find out!
Diets ae NOT us. It looks like a holiday. 🙂
Sorry, ARE
Wharfedale was our most recent Yorkshire Dale – Love them all.