Just a simple circular walk, on a day when the weather was far better than we could have expected - March 2000

Walks with a Camera © Geoff’s Pages 2011

We stayed the night at Raisgill, just across from the delightfully- named Yockenthwaite, and dined that evening just down the valley at Hubberholme. The villages mentioned are in Langstrothdale, the natural extension of Yorkshire's Wharfedale. The last village in upper Wharfedale is Buckden, after which the fell is named, and from where we started our walk. We crossed Buckden bridge and took the "Dales Way" footpath down the western side of the valley. This is a most pleasant pathway, at times a riverside route, at others a deep walled lane. We crossed the river again at Starbotton, where we began to climb, steeply at first. Looking down on the village reveals an interestingly random arrangement of buildings. We are now following Walden road, in fact a rough track across the fells to Walden Dale, a sideshoot of Wensleydale. Near the highest point of this old road, an extremely soggy path heads up across the peat, joining the summit ridge of Buckden Pike at the memorial stone. This commemorates the deaths, and survival of one, of the Polish crew of an RAF plane during the second world war. Descending the steep western flank of the Pike, we joined another ancient way, the track from Buckden over Stake Moss towards Bainbridge. Turning right onto this path, we very soon arrived at the hamlet of Cray where, finding the pub open, we adjourned for refreshment. We now headed westwards across the limestone shelf which marks the head of Wharfedale to Scar House, there cutting downwards to Hubberholme, and back along a little more of the Dales Way to return to Buckden and the car. An excellent day!