Grassington Circular 08.12.11

As the kettle boiled and I stared out at the street lit morning, Radio 5 live’s tinny breakfast show blurted out that there were severe weather warnings across central and southern Scotland. Up to 100mph winds and heavy rain – motorists were advised not to drive.

Like the excited child who unwraps the wrong Christmas present, I had to accept that today I wasn’t getting the Lake district. The brilliantly detailed lake district weather site  http://www.lakedistrictweatherline.co.uk/ advised that on the summits and ridges there would be 100mph winds. And just to underline what this meant, readers were advised that there was a “severe risk of being blown over”.

So we headed into the dales. We planned a low level circular from Grassington which took in Conistone Dib – an impressive limestone gully, and (accidentally) the Green Wood nature Reserve.

The walk climbs slowly along the section of the Dales Way linking Grassington and Kettlewell. This was full of exciting limestone outcrops and grassy paths – the type that in summer would be those bouncy, hollow sounding paths that force you into a cheerful, arm swinging rhythm. Today they were saturated and finding any rhythm was difficult. Ali & I quietly trudged and picked out our own paths through the standing water. Both with our heads down to avoid the rain on our faces. Just the sound of the drops on our hoods to accompany our thoughts.

As is always the case, we were hungry well before we felt we should be, so chose to stop and have a tea break under the protection of a 150 year old Lime Kiln which used to produce Lime for the surrounding fields. See below

We stood here and drew breath for twenty minutes or so – It was around nine am now and my thoughts drifted smugly to the image of the office I wasn’t in, the conversations I wasn’t having and the tension headache I didn’t seem to have. It was absolutely belting down. I didn’t hear a sheep make a noise all day long.

We continued along the Dales way until we reached a path which would eventually take us down to Conistone village. This fork left turned us into the wind, and for the next mile we barely looked up from our boots as rain lashed at our tilted hoods. The footpaths had become streams, and regardless of the look on my face below, our spirits were flying high as we discovered the stunning gully taking us down to Conistone (sadly my camera battery died here – for completeness visit www.geograph.org.uk/photo/564605).

It was a short climb out of Conistone village before we were back into the gales, this time the wind was coming across us and the noise it made was fantastic. It was roaring like jet engines as it swirled and blustered above. We were on the southern edge of a severe depression which would, later that day  record wind speeds of 165mph on Cainrgorm.

There were 2 miles of great dales walking back to Grasisngton. Walks in the dales are always more exciting then you expect, the limestone throws up interest at every turn. These low level walks, which can be overlooked in the hunt for altitude are some of the best hikes I’ve ever had. You feel like you could walk for days in the dales and never tire, they feel safe too, which was what we needed on a day like this.

The rain began to ease as we entered Green Wood nature reserve, an interesting deciduous woodland which states that it contains the remain of a medieval village. This wasn’t evident, maybe on a summers day we’d have searched for it. But by now my thoughts were drifting towards a dry pub and a well earned midday, midweek pint.

We returned to a sleepy Grassington by noon. We bought some beers and provisions, before returning home via the Hopper Lane pub. A stolen day in the hills together capped off by a late afternoon film, peering knowingly out at the wind and rain.