Kirkby Stephen Walk
A wild and windy railway walk. The two warm and cosy pubs, The Black Swan and the Kings Head, in the middle at Ravenstonedale, could be seen either as a blessing or an hindrance. Having tramped over Smardale Fell with what felt like a force ten gale blowing, they were certainly positive aspects. But then one of the down sides of circular walks from stations is the railway itinerary. On a Sunday this was rather limited. With my previous recent experiences of running for the train from Pen y Ghent, then making the platform as the train arrived on the platform at Lazonby, I was reluctant to linger. Though it was clear others would happily have sampled the full array of beer on offer. What a good thing I don’t drink beer.
So what else is there to see on this walk aside from the inside of two country pubs?
There were quite a few colourful sheep.
The odd coloured pony (for the uninitiated any pony with a lot of white and a blob or two of brown or black can be referred to as coloured, don’t expect the wonderful yellow and greens of our lovely sheep).
For a least five minutes the sun broke through in the distance and just behind it was possible to make out Cross Fell in the distance.
You will also walk along part of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast – the idea from my previous post – It was so windy on the top I took some video just so I could remember how windy it was. Pretty uninspiring visual, but if you take a look it will remind you of just why we all love to go out on wet and windy days!
Taking a picture of the sign was somewhat difficult with the wind just about blowing me over. For some reason Smardale Bridge conjured up a vision of a lovely village and civilisation. I had abdicated responsibility for map reading so when we reached the track leading down and its diminutive stature was revealed I was rather surprised.
It was so well signposted (that picture did not work) I expected at least a pub and a shop! Not that it you can be at all disappointed by Smardale valley, especially with the viaduct spanning where the old railway used to run. It is very dramatic, just wind chill had set in and, well, it will teach me to look at the map in future.
There are two footpaths to take down through Ravenstonedale Park, one just before the bridge, and one just after. If you take the one before you have a good chance of meeting what must be the most aggressive pheasant in at least Cumbria. So funny I put the video on YouTube. I had a comment from friends who had also recently walked the path on the east side of the valley and they were similarly accosted. Beware.
On the return stretch we walked along some small lanes, no traffic, and even a short stretch of the A683 as we had been warned in the pub that open access area of Ash Fell was very wet. If traffic volume was the measure to grade the road, it certainly would not have been an ‘ A’ . The approach back to the station is long the short LDW, the Kirkby Stephen link which is actually a link to the Station for the Pennine Bridleway.
