Aysgarth falls and a walk to West Burton

Thursday, March 22, 2018

The second book we bought for walking in the Yorkshire Dales was the Pathfinder Guides 15 (outstanding circular walks). This was walk 7 and noted as 5.25 miles. We parked in the first car park off the main road towards the falls which was pay and display and manned (Sunday) so we were keenly aware of not exceeding our ticket expiry time. The book estimated a 2.5 hour walk time so we bought a 3 hour stay and set off. The walk takes you down through the churchyard and out into paths which skirt the river Ure. Incidentallly the churchyard was utterly gorgeous in mid March; flurries of snowdrops in bloom. 
There are footpaths running both sides of the river giving views of the Asygarth falls and these are from the south. The trees obscured much else of a photographic opportunity.

After the stretch along the river bank it lead to the main road which was the least enjoyable part of the walk as there wasn't much room to manoeuvre when the cars raced past and  wouldn't much fancy this in peak season as the density of traffic flow would be far too frequent for my liking. Once we reached our footpath exit we squelched our way uphill to the remnants of a Knights Templar chapel which is of course extremely exciting as that part of history makes for compelling delving.



From the chapel we u-turned and took the footpath toward Morpeth Gate track which felt like quite a way as it kept going... then reached a stony track that lead down toward the village of West Burton

This was the first day we encountered wild garlic. Round our way in Norfolk there is not a sniff of the stuff but over our week on holiday we saw thousands of shoots, tons of the stuff. I was so envious as I'd love some on our doorstep and there was bounteous volume growing strongly here.
I believe this may be called Walden Beck through West Burton and it looked very pretty with all the snowdrops in bloom on the bank.

From the village our route back cut across several large fields and to my great fortuity there appeared two willing guinea pigs who lead the way and whom would encounter any problems first and give me the heads up to leg it. I knew our fitness training would pay dividends one day. That day was not the day - nothing troublesome to be seen and we returned to the church with 45 minutes parking to spare. To keep it a thrifty day and to satisfy my curiosity I suggested we continue down the road to take the northern footpath to see the fall from the other side. It was an especially well waymarked route with the special car park for the falls (I didn't check the tariff) and conveniently with toilets. There were a few people who couldn't navigate a one-way system footpath...


The water was plentiful; it always reminds me about coke flowing from a freshly shaken bottle when in full ceremony after heavy rainfall. 

This made for a good second half to the day after our walk round Semer water and left me fulfilled.
Take care,
Sophie

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Sometimes I am sent items to feature as part of a post and these will be clearly mentioned as part of each post.Everything else is bought by myself. Any sponsored or collaboration posts will be clearly marked. Each post is my own content and all opinions are honest.