Aysgarth Falls
4 miles/6.5km
THERE ARE TWO ways to drive from Feetham to Aysgarth, and they’re both corkers: the Reeth road, via Redmire Moor and Castle Bolton, or the Askrigg Road via Long Band and The Fleak. In doing so, we cross from Swaledale into Wensleydale, and it’s a whole new world. Broader, more populous and slightly more manicured, Wensleydale is the show-home of the national park, and we’re heading for its centrepiece: Aysgarth Falls.
This is a walk I haven’t done for ages, and in contrast to the epic journeys of the last few days, this is a shorter, more sedate affair. It’s a story of woods and rivers and stepped waterfalls, rather than big, lonely moorland. It’s all about the River Ure (Wensleydale is one of very few dales not to be named after its river) and the falls into which it trips just east of Aysgarth village.
There are longer walks you can do from the falls, usually involving a long loop north-eastwards to the always impressive Bolton Castle. But a simple riverside stroll is great, and for variety we can head up the gently sloping field paths to Carperby, from where the dale is framed beautifully by the great bulk of Penhill on the far side.
At Aysgarth Falls itself, just do what everyone else does: stand, gawp, paddle (with care) and remember the scene where Kevin Costner falls into them in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I know, I know, you’re now singing Bryan Adams. Only one thing will get rid of that: an adjournment to the George & Dragon or the Aysgarth Falls Hotel, and a (carefully distanced) chat with the others who’ve had the same idea.
“It’s woods and a story of rivers and stepped waterfalls, rather than big, lonely moorland.”