Summit And The Polish Memorial

It was a much milder today and most of the ice had disappeared. I was therefore surprised when I suddenly ended up head first in the heather. I stood up and brushed myself down and carried out a thorough accident investigation. I'd been crossing a small brook that had a rock slab across it. The slab didn't look icy, but when I rubbed my finger across it, the surface was pure ice. There were plenty of more slabs further up and I took greater care crossing them. After such a gradual ascent it was almost a shock when I reached Buckden Pike's top. A trig and a nearby cairn grace the summit. There was a cold wind hitting the top and so I wasn't going to wait around. Dark clouds seemed to be drifting in from the north and east and I thought I might be in for a spot of rain. A fingerpost at the top indicated a war memorial and so I followed its direction. Some slabs ran alongside a stone wall and I walked gingerly along them. After about ten minutes I came to a large stone cross. An inscription said that it commemorated five Polish airmen who lost their lives here in 1942. The base of the memorial was adorned with lanterns and Polish flags. 

Road To Nowhere

I could see some cairns to the east. Looking at the OS map, the location would be the remains of Hard Rake Quarries. I made my way across there. Apart from the cairns and a few piles of rubble there wasn't that much to see. Presumably the workers would have had to climb up from Starbotton and Buckden before starting a shift. That would be a hard but picturesque commute. Further over to the east I could see the Whernsides, both the Great and the Little. I started walking along the bridleway that leads to Starbotton. I'd not really done much planning for this walk and it was only when I descended a fair amount that I studied the map for my route back to Buckden. It was ony 11:00 and I didn't want to get back too early. I could see from the map that if I went to Starbotton, I could pick up the Dales Way to get back to Buckden. I'd done that path a few weeks ago and I wanted to do something different today. I could see the Buckden Lead Mine on the map and there was a way down to Buckden from there. The only problem was that I'd need to go back to the summit to pick up the path down to the mine. I wondered whether I could just contour around the hill to the mine, but those black lines running down the hill, indicating walls, looked rather ominous. I thought it was worth a try though, and I contoured over Starbotton Fell towards the Lead Mine. The first stone wall wasn't quite as high as the Great Wall Of China, but it was just as effective. There wasn't a stile in sight. I cursed myself as I reversed my route back to the summit of Buckden Pike. 

Buckden Lead Mines

A shower started as I picked up the permissive path down to the lead mine and I packed my cameras away in my rucksack. As with all these old mines, there wasn't that much to see. There was the outline of a few buildings and the remnants of walls, as well as the spoil heaps. I could see Buckden village at the bottom of the clough, and it seemed quite close. Although some tracks leading down the clough, are shown on the map, none have been labelled as public footpaths and I didn't want my progress pevented by a stone wall again. I therefore took the a path that contoured along the hill towards Starbotton. This turned out to be a good choice, since the views down into the Wharfedale valley were excellent, although a huge cloud had blocked out the sun causing the area to be caste in a twilight light. I diverted off the Starbotton path on to a permissive path that double backed to Buckden. I caught up with two old men who were also walking down the path. These were the first people I'd seen all day. They looked like they didn't want to engage in conversation and so I continued past them. When I got back to the carpark, there was just one other car and a minibus. Maybe the recent weather had put people off.

After two days of mizzle it was great to do a walk with views. And those views down into Wharfedale are exceptional. If I did this walk again, I'd avoid my explorations on Starbotton Fell. I'd still pay homage to the Polish Air Memorial though.