Keld to Muker - a fabulous walk with children

Children love a map.  They love having a list of things to find.  They love exciting places to explore.  The 'Showing You the Way .... Keld to Muker - a Children's Guide has everything needed to stimulate imagination and spark interest in the great outdoors.  I have copies at Pry House Farm B&B or pick one up in the Keld Countryside & Heritage Centre http://keld.org.uk/

  

Ruben and Fergus (9 years) studying the map at the start of the walk in Keld where the Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast path meets.









Before we set off we called at Rukin's Tearoom in Keld village for supplies and sweets in a stripey bag - essential kit for explorers of all ages.


It wasn't long before we came across the first of two magnificent waterfalls.
            

 

Here we are standing in front of  East Gill Falls and a little further along the path searching for the entrance to a disused lead mine called Landy Level.  It has now sunken and looks more like a fox hole or a tiny cave.  If you are on the path earlier in the year, before the bracken has grown, it is easier to find.

At the bottom of Swinner Gill the remains of Beldi lead mining buildings are too exciting not to explore. The stream can be crossed by footbridge or paddled through.  When the weather is really hot the pool below is a fabulous place to swim.  In the second photo Fergus and Ruben and I are looking round an old abandoned farmhouse called Crackpot Hall.  Find an old fireplace, a tin bath, a stairwell and landing window.  What must it have been like to live here with no electricity, no running water, no road?

There are three different illustrated walks leaflets in the children's series.  

This is what Fergus and Ruben had to say about their walk.  'Great walk from Keld to Muker.  We loved following the map and finding all the things especially the tractor skeleton.  We think Auntie Glenda is the best teacher of all things Swaledale!  We can't wait to do the next walk'.

If you are in Swaledale with your children or grandchildren please pick up a walk leaflet and be your children's guide.  Its great fun.

Hay time with Dalesman magazine

Its not often I open Yorkshire's most popular magazine to find photographs 

of my husband haymaking.

In August's edition of the Dalesman magazine there is a photographic account of 

the haytime afternoon we held last year.  Local children, who helped me create 

an illustrated walk leaflet for young visitors to the dale, came to find out how hay used to be made before mechanisation and to have a go themselves.

Proffessional photographer, Stephen Garnett

came to record the event for the Yorkshire Dales

National Park Authority.

It is fascinating to look back and recall how different hay time this year has been compared to 2017.

This year we had all our hay made and stored by 2nd July.

Last year we struggled to get two dry days together and

we made very little hay.  At one point I didn't think the children's haymaking event would happen but it did - 

on the last day of the school holidays 

Friday 1st September!

One Swallow Doesn't Make a Summer

One swallow doesn't make a summer but a whole nestful does!  

When the parents of this brood built their nest on the top of an old door propped up in a building in our yard I thought there was little hope of them hatching.  They had chosen a place that we use every day; where we store the dog food and where Chris keeps his tools.  Every time we went in the parent bird abandoned the nest and her eggs. There was only one solution - a mammoth tidy up and a re-housing of anything we used regularly.

The plan worked.  They have all successfully fledged and each evening join the dozens of other young swallows learning to swoop and dive and catch food on the wing.

 

Muker to Calvert Houses - An Every Cowus Tells A Story Walk

There are six walk booklets as part of the Every Barn Cowus Tells a Story project

This is Muker to Calvert Houses and is an easy walk, almost all on the level with only two short inclines.  It starts in Muker and passes through the meadows to the river then instead of turning left to Keld turn right and head down dale.

 

This walk is infact probably less challenging than the children's cowus trail from Muker to Thwaite via Kisdon Houses.  Then again children love a challenge!

Shortly after leaving Muker is the hamlet of Rampsholme and in the field you pass through is Great Rampsholme cow house.  This is one of the cowus's that was restored using money left in a legacy which in turn sparked the idea of the Every Barn Cowus Tells a Story project.

The impressively restored internal features of a tradional cow house

 

This is a walk for all the family with plenty of space and places to paddle and picnic.

Looking back to Muker and the patchwork of meadows each with its own cowus.

From mid May the sheep are taken off the fields to let the grass grow so that in summer it can be made into hay which is fed to the stock during winter.  Please be mindful of this precious crop and perhaps walk around the edges rather than taking the direct path straight across. 

After passing through the farmyard at Calvert Houses turn left onto the higher level track that runs along the edge of the moor.  The moors have their own species of flora; dozens of tiny, pretty, low growing alpines which are delightful after the bleak winter months when very little grows here.

Follow the track back to the river and cross the bridge.  If it is a very hot day, as it was when I walked this route,  then take a break, dip your toes in the water and count the cow houses!

The maps in the centre of each booklet has the route marked clearly in red. However any other public footpaths are also shown (in grey) so you can shorten the walk if necessary or make your own route.   The Every Barn Cowus Tells A Story booklets are available to buy at the National Park Visitor Centres in Reeth, Aysgarth and Bainbridge or online at yorkshiredales.org.uk.  At £4.99 for a pack of 6 different walking guides they are terrific value for money.

Hay time in a Heat Wave

The heat wave continues.  

We have had blazing hot days and no rain and although it has cooled down slightly there is no rain on the horizon.  We continue to make fodder whilst the sun shines but into silage rather than hay.

 

Silage making is highly mechanised but the John Deeres soon have it rowed up, baled up 

lifted and led away to get wrapped and stacked.

But there's still nothing like a trailer load of little bales - 

light and sweet smelling, its worth its weight in gold.

 

Hay time with Paul Rose for the BBC

It has been a very special day.  

We have had presenter Paul Rose and a team from the BBC here today filming the meadows and hay fields for a programme that will be aired next year on our local BBC1 channel and on BBC2. 

Paul Rose chats to Chris in one of our hay meadows.

Paul has a go with a hand rake, raking the hay into a row.

The producer / director gives hand signals to the other camera man.

Then it was my turn to be interviewed about the cowus's.

Once the field was baled up Paul helped to load the bales onto the trailer and then put them through the forking hole into the hay mew by the house.

Producer and cameraman at work.

The drone like a giant insect in the meadow field!

Muker Meadows - the Jewel in the Crown

Muker meadows have to be the Yorkshire Dales jewel in the crown.

At this very moment they are simply spectacular, a paintbox of colour.

It is not surprising that they were awarded coronation status by Prince Charles 

to mark 60 years of the Queen's coronation.  

There is an abundance of wildflowers including yellow rattle, ladies mantle, rough hawkbit and more but it is the swathes of purple wood cranes-bill against lacy white pignut that creates the artist's palate.

 My favourite time of day to visit the meadows is early evening.  It is quiet and still and last of the day's sun shows the meadows in their best light.  There may be one of two people leaving but only me going in - just how I like it!