Captain's Log

Kettlewell

My car's thermometer had registered 0°C in Hawes, edged up to 5°C as we drove over the moors at Oughtershaw, and then fell back down to  0°C as we descended into Upper Wharfedale and drove into the Yorkshire Dales National Park carpark at Kettlewell. With a temperate and elevation distribution like that I wondered whether we might see any cloud inversions today. There certainly wasn’t one in evidence at this delightful Dales village though. It felt frosty, but the valley was clear of clouds.  We started our walk through the quiet village streets. A whiff of wood smoke in the air, Robins parading on weathered stone walls, the constant chime of water sloshing its way along the beck. Kettlewell really is a lovely village. 

I’d already ticked Great Whernside off on my Dales 30 Venture as far back as 2022 (see Great Great Whernside), but the Cabin Boy and Kapitan hadn’t bagged it, and so I decided to ascend its lofty heights again. On my previous walk I’d noticed a footpath heading off to Providence Pot, and so I decided to check that out today. Once the Dales 30 peak had been ticked I intended heading south down Great Whernside’s broad ridge before descending through lower fells back to Kettlewell.  Unusually for this time of the day, the Kapitan and Cabin Boy seemed to be in remarkably fine spirits, probably because I’d told them that we'd be doing a shorter walk. I'd neglected to tell them that Great Whernside is still quite a slog to get up. 

Providence Pot

After leaving the last outpost of Kettlewell’s cottages, we headed off along a footpath that ran alongside Dowber Gill Beck. It was so frosty that we had to take care on the slippery steps of the wooden stiles. The clough we followed was quite deep and had steep sides. We were walking in the shade, but above us the hillsides glowed with golden colours from the early morning sun. A shame that some of its warmth couldn’t be transferred down to our path. It was a gradual ascent up the clough, but step-by-step we started to gain height. The path seemed that long that I began thinking that  Providence Pot might be the figment of imagination of a fingerpost maker. Eventually we saw what seemed like a termination point for our clough, although on closer inspection it merely split into two: Hagg Dike Gill Beck and Dowber Gill Wham. Just before this junction we came across Providence Pot. It had a thick concrete cap settled on a jumble of boulders and scaffold poles.  The entry point on the concrete cap was covered by a heavy metal plate. There was also a metal fixing attached to the concrete presumably for those potholers who wanted to attach ropes. Subsequent reading about the pothole enlightened me about its ‘..principal feature…”Blasted Crawl”, a miniscule joint controlled passage between Terminal Chamber and the Palace.’ I think that just about sums everything  up about potholing. It isn’t for me. I wouldn’t want to end my days  in Terminal Chamber after squeezing my way through Blasted Crawl. The Kapitan and Cabin Boy didn’t look too interested in exploring it further either and so I set my focus on our next objective, Great Whernside. 

Great Whernside

It was a steep climb out of the clough and we soon transferred from the cold shade, to the hot sun. We were even blessed with a few midges sparkling in the warm rays to keep us company. The steepness eased and the terrain became flat as we approached the scout house at Hag Dyke. There was no flag fluttering at the top of their flagpole and the buildings looked deserted.  We pressed onwards to Great Whernside,  up a steep rocky path. When we reached the top of this steep section we stopped to have a break near the large cairns that have been built near to the edge. The position offered us a fine view westwards across Upper Wharfedale and beyond to the rolling fells. 

I warned the Kapitan and Cabin Boy about the moistness of the next part of the walk. As expected, it was quite boggy and I was glad I was wearing waterproof socks. A few diversions later and we had traversed the worst of it and started the final climb up to Great Whernside’s top. The summit is quite a jumble of large rocks, but there is a trig point to indicate where you should be heading. At last we reached the highest point and the Kapitan and Cabin Boy gained their Dales 30 tick. While they were doing high-fives, hugging each other and dancing around in celebration, I wandered over a few hundred yards  to the east towards Stone Head Top. It is surprising how flat Great Whernside is on top. I eventually got to a position where I could see Little Whernside to the northeast and a reservoir in the valley. There are two reservoirs down there, Angram and Scar House. Back at the summit of Great Whernside, we were now ready to start the long descent back down to Kettlewell.

Ridge Walking

We headed southeast following the ideal navigational handrail of a wire fence. When it headed to the south, we followed it again as it went over Sweet Hill and continued our descent to Hill End where we settled down to have our lunch. It had a marvellous view from this spot. Over to the south, I could see valleys filled with mist; at least somebody was getting a cloud inversion today. Over to the east, I could see Ilkley Moor, Simon’s Seat and then some odd looking structures. I presumed these were the radar ‘golf balls’ at RAF Menwith Hill. I took a photo and zoomed into the image and confirmed that these were indeed the radar buildings. 

After lunch we continued following the wire fence down Hill End and the terrain got boggier as it flattened out. It got so bad that we were making slow progress through the mini-lakes and islands. When the wire fence changed direction to the south, near a boundary stone, I suggested to the Kapitan that we should head west to pick up a footpath near Drizzle Pot where the terrain might make walking easier. He didn’t object. It was a lucky choice since we ended up on a lovely grass path. The rest of the route down to Kettlewell would turn out to be remarkably dry.

Descent To Kettlewell

Initially we didn’t descend at all, but followed the grassy path alongside the stone wall, This headed northwards along the contour of the hill. The OS map indicated pots in this area, but these were positioned on the other side of the stone wall and inaccessible. The path continued until we were almost back at Providence Pot. Instead of descending the clough towards it, we headed westwards across fell partitioned by stone walls. The OS map showed that this area was littered with a lead mine, shafts and bell pits. Despite all this industrial activity below ground, above ground the landscape was a delight to behold. Over to the north we could see the massive bulk of Buckden Pike, to the east Great Whernside, and over to the west Upper Wharfedale where Kettlewell nestled. Just before reaching Kettlewell we got excellent views along Dowber Gill Beck where we’d walked earlier in the day. 

Return To Kettlewell

We made our way back through the pretty streets of Kettlewell. A toy Hare was draped over a garden wall. It looked exhausted. I fully expected to find a tortoise at the finish line at the Racehorses Hotel. Instead of a tortoise, I saw a woman standing on a patch of grass next to a shiting dog. The dog was at the shaking back legs stage of the process. At that very moment, I had a sudden urge and imperative need to sneeze. It was emitted with such force and volume that it echoed between Old Cote Moor and Great Whernside at least a dozen times. It was such an acoustic shock that a BT engineer standing near his parked van dropped his toolbox in surprise and another man split most of his pint as he sat at the patio table outside the Racehorses Hotel. The most unfortunate impact though was to the woman and the shiting dog. She jumped at least a foot up in the air, and the shiting dog a good deal higher. It was only one sneeze, but the impact had been devastating. The dog landed safely enough, but it was so unsettled that it was unable to successfully complete the voiding of its bowels. It chased around the grass  in circles next to its owner,  at a high pace and  in a confused state. As I made my way past them to the carpark I said ‘It’s a lovely day’ to the owner. She didn’t reply and gave me the dirtiest look I’d received since the last time I asked the Cabin Boy to navigate on a walk. 

I didn’t let this late incident spoil the day though. These things happen. It had been a cracking day. Unbelievably sunny weather for mid November and glorious views throughout the route. I might have already ticked Great Whernside, but it was well worth the effort going up again.