Waterfalls, viaducts and a remote dale

When I visited it, the peaty waters of the Hardraw Beck, some three yards wide, were thundering over the 80ft drop and creating a spray which was drifting as mist down the steep sides of the valley. Sightseers were standing well back in awe. The village is also a good centre for a walk into remote Cotterdale.

Our route starts along the Pennine Way, leaving the village street at the west end, just beyond the Cart House tearoom. The stony lane was once the cart track which led to coal mines on the slopes of Cotterdale. It climbs gently over Bluebell Hill to a gate where a track goes right to more pits above the Hearne Beck.

We follow the Pennine Way for another 100yds and then turn left at a sign to Cotterdale.

The path is easy to follow as it descends, at first across open moor, into the valley. There are wide views down left across Wensleydale to the grey heights of Widdale Fell. From the ruins of Kempera sheepfolds look out for the waters of the Cotterdale Beck roaring below over a series of falls.

Two fields further and there is one awkward wall stile to negotiate next to a barn before the path reaches the valley floor.

Go right at a junction of paths along a stream side and through three gated stiles to reach the hamlet at the end of the dale.

Most of the cottages here are now holiday lets but once housed farm workers or miners. Many are harmoniously roofed with local Hardraw flagstones so that they appear to merge into the landscape. Shepherd's Cottage, dated 1616 and at the end of the village street, is a good example. Further down the street is Johnny Kirk's Cottage of about 1700 with a pigeonhole in the gable of the porch.

Take the path opposite this cottage and along the side of East Gill. It then crosses West Gill by a prominent bridge and after two fields climbs a bank along a wall side to the valley road. Go straight over here on a well-marked path over Cotter Low Rigg.

It is worth pausing at the second wall crossing for the extensive views down the valley towards Hawes.

At this point we are crossing the ancient route which led from Wensleydale up the steep hill to the right to Cotter End before it descended into the valley of the Eden. Countless thousands of travellers must have used it, including William Camden in the sixteenth century.

Lady Anne Clifford in the 1660s, with her horse litter, carriages and large retinue of servants, came this way several time en route between her Wharfedale and Westmorland estates.

Our path now goes downhill into Wensleydale. Beyond a ladder stile, go half right across the next field into a fine stand of beeches which help to break up the winds that gust down the valley. The Ure is crossed by Thwaite Bridge, built in the mid-eighteenth century when the turnpike road was opened between Sedbergh and Askrigg.

Go straight across the A684 and over the spur between Wensleydale and Mossdale. Turn left through a gate some 200yds before the viaduct on the former railway between Garsdale and Hawes.

From the bridge leading to the farm of Mossdale Head, there is an excellent view of the spectacular Lower Mossdale Falls framed in the viaduct (the higher falls, painted by J M W Turner, are a quarter of a mile up the beck and not accessible to the public).

Our route continues downstream following Mossdale Gill at first and then the Ure. Pass between the barns and farmhouses and across six gated fields to the track leading to Mid Mossdale, one of the most isolated of Wensleydale's farms. Go left along this track through a pleasant pastoral landscape to join the lane from Birkrigg Farm. In another 200yds, just beyond two barns, go right on a riverside path signed to Appersett.

The scenery, especially along the river, is attractively wooded, though the going, with three ladder stiles and a stream to jump over, is more rugged.

In about threequarters of a mile, we come to New Bridge, built in 1825 to link Hawes to the turnpike. Here an important decision needs to be taken. To return directly to the starting point, climb another ladder stile, cross the bridge and turn first right for just over half a mile along the road to Hardraw. However, if you have the stamina instead to walk another two and half miles of mainly field paths, then the following is an attractive route which takes in Hawes, the capital of upper Wensleydale, followed by a stretch of the Pennine Way where it crosses the valley.

Follow the path parallel to the A684 and then cross the bridge over the Widdale Beck into Appersett. Go immediately right on a lane which leads to a five-arched viaduct over the beck. It is probably the finest of the structures along the line from Hawes to Garside which opened in 1878 and closed in 1959.

In the long-term plans of the Wensleydale Railway Company, the line would be restored and trains would once more link Northallerton with the Settle-Carlisle railway at Garsdale.

Turn left after the viaduct and cross three fields on a well-defined path to a stone barn. Go left across three more fields to a gate by a huge barn. The track returns you to the A684 next to Ashes, a fine eighteenth century house still attached to the original earlier dwelling (this is a good example of changing styles as the standard of living improves). Turn right here into Hawes.

With all its shops, pubs, cafes and other attractions, Hawes is always worth a saunter. Look out for the pious motto of 1688 on a house on the left in the Market Place. "God being with us who can be against."

At the far end of town, join the Pennine Way which follows the road to Hardraw. At the entrance to the industrial estate, there is a short cut across fields on a paved path. The road is rejoined and crosses the Ure by Haylands Bridge. The first path left takes you directly to Hardraw over the football field via ladder and wall stiles. The easier Pennine Way turns left off the road in another 200yds.

WALK FACTS

Distance: 7 miles shorter route, 9 miles via Hawes.

Time: 4 hours short, five and a half long route.

Grade: Moderate. Several ladder stiles.

Conditions: Muddy in places after rain.

Refreshments: Hardraw and Hawes.