Bordley

11:31am Saturday 17th May 2008

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BORDLEY is a hamlet that has lost its name on the Ordnance Survey map. I say this because it is the only settlement on this walk in the southwestern dales.

The nearest village is Hetton, of gourmet fame due to its Angel Inn, and also nearby is Rylstone, of tasty reputation too, due to the Calendar Girls.

So, from an out-of-the-way car park by a disused quarry, we walked down a track named Moor Lane, accompanied by our personal midge hatch, to Winterburn Reservoir, a pretty water set in grassland.

Stuck in a stone wall was a log card from a member of a hiking group, and in the comments section was written: "Dude this walk is radical".

From the heat by the reservoir beck there was a two-mile climb to come, from 700ft to the 1,400ft at Weets Top. The radical factor is the nature of the path surface for most of the way. It's a yard across, of hard packed gravel and sand, a super surface made for the mountain bike riders, and also for the walker. Don't worry about the bikes, you'll see any fast ones coming downhill from a mile off, all is open, grassy and spacey.

It was an easy hour on the up and navigation a cinch, there are lichen encrusted fingerposts with named destinations.

Along with the occasional lapwing, curlew and blackheaded gull there were the incessant skylarks. They twitter as they fly up, they twitter as they hang around over head, they come down, rest, and do it again, as do their mates. A pair of crows perched, no, crows don't perch, they stood on a wall, lording it. Plenty of bird egg breakfasts for them.

We had our sandwiches near the trig point on Weets Top. From here you can see the opening of Gordale Scar and the limestone pavement surrounds. A haze closed round us, rubbed out hard shadows and the only wood around beckoned, of lovely battered larches.

After the larches there's a tree surgeon's yard with a sign asking one not to loiter and sensibly lots of waymarks to make sure you don't need to.

Around now the last of the walk is visible, its nature is obvious, that of quite a large valley to go down into and up out of. At the bottom, by the beck and stylish barns, in a compressed microcosm of spring, was a colourful mix from marsh marigold to bluebell.

This is Bordley, where Lainger House dates to the seventeenth century. And then the dead-end Tarmac twists to the car park.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. Left to road from parking area, downhill, 250 yards and 50 yards before cattlegrid/fieldgate, gate to walled track on right (fingerpost Hetton), fieldgate, path by wall for 50 yards then path angles across field, gradually downhill.

2. Immediately before fieldgate, right to surfaced path downhill (fingerpost Malham).

3. Stone bridge, ten yards, gate (fingerpost), uphill on path, grass, gate (fingerpost Weets Top), gate (fingerpost) and left on grassy path that is surfaced from right-hand bend near field corner, by wall to your left.

4. Gate at corner (fingerpost), surfaced path, ford stream, gateway, path becomes grassy and stay near wall to your left, fieldgate, surfaced path (erosion sign).

5. Fieldgate to left of trig point to walled track (fingerpost), 200 yards, wall stile on right (fingerpost Park House), field, gated wall stile (access land sign), path by wall to your left, gated wallstile, path through trees, squeezer out (yellow spot), field.

6. Fieldgate to right of barn (waymark), ten yards, fieldgate (waymark), cross timber yard, fieldgate out (waymark/fingerpost Know Bank), grassy path, large fieldgate in gateway, 100 yards at 1 o'clock.

7. Wallstile on corner (fingerpost), track by wall to your left, fieldgate and downhill, track loops within 100 yards of wall to your left, fieldgate (fingerpost), track to walled track by barn.

8. Fieldgate by barn and right to farm road downhill (fingerpost Threshfield), fieldgate, uphill on track Right to road, fieldgate.

Fact file

Distance: Six and a half miles.

General location: Yorkshire Dales.

Start: Boss Moor GR SD956618. Road is signed Fleets Lane' from just north of Hetton and also Bordley 4'.

Right of Way: Public.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL2 Yorkshire Dales southern and western areas.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: May 2008.

Road route: Via Hetton.

Car parking: Disused quarry on right, a few hundred yards north of cattle grid, broken wooden sign.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Angel at Hetton.

Tourist and public transport information: Malham TIC 01729 830363.

Terrain: Fell.

Difficulty: One thousand feet of climbing.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.