... and in the Yorkshire Dales
How CW turned a series of night-time visions into a week of magnificent Yorkshire yomping….
The point where I realised lockdown was really biting was when I had recurring dreams about the Yorkshire Dales.
In one, I had decided to re-train as an auctioneer in Kettlewell and had to transport a Victorian oak-leaf bureau over the Lady Anne Highway on horseback, like a medieval coffin. (Apparently I was the only person in the antiques trade not in possession of a Volvo.)
In another, I met the sorcerer who cursed the ancient town that was allegedly consumed by Semer Water. We danced a merry galliard on the summit of Addlebrough while my old geography teacher waved some unfinished homework from down in the valley.
There were others. Some were even weirder. But the meaning of these midnight fevers was clear: I was missing the Yorkshire Dales. I always do, when I’ve been away from them too long.
Maybe you feel it too. An inexplicable craving for limestone. Earworms of Jake Thackray. Traversing the cheese aisle in Tesco and thinking: ‘must… buy… Wensleydale’. (Although in fairness, too much Wensleydale was probably the cause of the dreams.) There was no fighting this affliction; it could only be embraced. And thus I began planning a week’s Grand Tour of the Yorkshire Dales. Seven days, seven walks.
And reader, what a joy. Components have flitted in and clunked out as whim and wisdom struck. I’ve mixed places I can’t wait to get back to with places I’ve never been before. Spliced honeypot classics with offbeat oddities. Chosen places for their magnetic myths, beaming hospitality or stupendous views (in most cases, all three).
The final list is something I’m quite proud of. I won’t be so bold as to say it’s the definitive list 711fof the seven greatest walks in the Yorkshire Dales. But it is everything I can’t wait to do. And thus it is everything I’d proudly lay on the bedside table of the similarly-disturbed Country Walking reader and say ‘sleep easy, my friend. Here’s what we’re going to do.’