Maps 98 & 99 – God’s Country: the Yorkshire Dales

What a day of cycling we enjoyed today! On a perfect late summer’s day, with a gentle following breeze, the journey of 68 miles from Sedbergh to a little south of Fountains Abbey was a true delight from start to finish. The roads were small and quiet, the land green, the scenery breathtaking and the towns and villages delightful. If it wasn’t my very best day of cycling so far (and there have been so many to choose from), then it was right up there. I had Andy for company all day, and we started with breakfast in Sedbergh with 2 of my close friends, Simon and Matt, who were out for a walk in the Howgills. Add to that a wonderful evening with an amazing meal, at the lovely Yorkshire home of Andy’s friends Warwick and Mary, complete with pet alpacas, and you might struggle to find another day that ticked quite as many boxes. But then I’m probably biased, because I come from Yorkshire, God’s Country, and today took us through some of my favourite places.

The cycling part of the morning began with a ride up the lovely, hidden world of Dentdale, surely one of the best valleys in England. I have been here quite a few times over the years, staying in the main settlement, Dent town (a timeless village with cobbled streets), eating and drinking in its pubs, and walking along the valley on the Dales Way, or up in the surrounding hills. I have even run in the annual Dent Run a few times, taking in most of the valley in its 14 mile route. So Dent holds many good memories for me, even when it rained. And rained. I therefore knew I was in for a wonderful start to the day today, and so it proved.

At the far end of Dentdale the small road climbs steeply up past Dent station on the Settle-Carlisle railway. This is England’s highest mainline station at 1,150 feet above sea level. Jenni and I once looked around the station buildings when they were for sale. It was pretty bleak up there even in July, as I recall. We decided against the idea, which now feels like a very good decision. You can be too remote.

But today we rode under the viaduct and up higher onto the moors, before plunging majestically down again along 7 amazing miles of road into the small town of Hawes, the capital of Upper Wensleydale, where the cheese is made. The centre was bustling today in the sunshine. We sat outside a cafe next to a couple of cyclists who were riding their own coast to coast in a day, 15 hours and 150 miles from Seascale on the Cumbrian coast, up over the brutal Hard Knott and Wrynose passes, and all the way to Whitby. They were already riding today at 6am and had made it almost halfway. In Sedbergh there had been frost until after 8am. It must have been chilly.

The ride down Wensleydale from Hawes, via Askrigg, Carperby and Redmire to Middleham, was superb. The Tour de France came here for the Grand Depart stages in 2014 and people turned out to watch in their millions. Today we had the quiet road along the north side of the valley to ourselves. We rode along under the limestone scars and past the imposing Bolton Castle, high above us on the valley side. In Redmire, most of the village was out celebrating its “feast” on the village green. A very competitive game of quoits was in full swing in the quoit pit. This involves the throwing through the air of heavy metal rings towards a small wooden post (or ”hob”) sunk into clay. It looked like it required considerble strength. A lady told us that all the local villages play each other, but that today the competition was just between Redmire folk. They seemed to be playing for a couple of shiny copper kettles sitting on the judges table.

We agreed that there really wasn’t anything we would rather be doing than cycling here today. We stopped and enjoyed the warm sun over a pint of Black Sheep in the historic square in Middleham, now a horse breeding township; but once the site of an important mediaeval castle whose ruins loom over the rooftops today. Fittingly, perhaps, Middleham is twinned with Agincourt. It is a very pretty spot and we were deserving of a break in proceedings.

After here, things got a little gentler as we followed lanes towards Masham, a lovely town on the River Ure with an enormous market place, and home to both Theakstons and Black Sheep breweries. We had ice creams here to give us energy for the last hour along quiet roads through more pretty villages like Grewelthorpe and Kirkby Malzeard. Everywhere looked like a place you could live.

The last few miles took us right past Fountains Abbey, which we saw over a hedge as we climbed the last big hill of the day, and 20 minutes later we were saying hello to a couple of curious alpacas at the end of our ride. A really exceptional day. What fun.