Lovely Probus walk on Tuesday. Six of us tackled a circular walk starting from Coldstone Cut, near Pateley Bridge.
Don’t know if you’ve been there, but it must be the best kept secret in Yorkshire! An unimpressive small car park just off the Pateley to Grassington road with a short-ish rising footpath leading to a fascinating ‘art installation’ that overlooks a massive working quarry! Information boards describethe geology and the history of use of the local stone – superb!
Already buzzing with interest, and we hadn’t even started the walk!

Bill, our walk Leader soon went ‘off piste’ from his planned and reconnoitred walk, so it was a ‘short cut’ across open moorland followed by some genuine footpaths past beautifully renovated stone houses with lovely gardens and matching views.
The advertised stile-free walk turned out to have quite a lot of unstable stone steps over crumbling dry stone walls, and a few more sturdy wooden stiles – apparently these don’t count!

The long distance views, it has to be said, were magnificent throughout, as was the wildlife. A hare darted across a field, a large flock of alleged partridges took to the wing(s), and a charming group of cows, their calves and a rather scary bull allowed us to continue on our way across their field.
A steep climb took us back towards the car park, and in the many opportunities we took to pause to ‘admire the view’ we observed the decision making processes of a flock of sheep, with the braver members (the sheep that is!) leaping over substantial stone walls into a much better adjacent pasture.
Our lunch at The Sportsmans Arms Hotel at Wath was one of the best meals we’ve had, fully matched by the entertaining discussion within the group.

A great day out – may there be many more like that!