I’ve been exploring again in glorious Yorkshire…………………so this is a walk, a little bit of industrial history and an introduction to another part of my home county. Oh, and there’s a cake ………………………. check this out! It’s from Ottolenghi ‘The Cookbook’ and is the ‘Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Frosting’. It looked delicious when it came out of the oven but with the frosting on it was divine. However, it was a bit too messy to take on my walk, so I had to take a substitute!
So, orange rucksack packed, day to myself…………………that equals fresh air and a mini adventure. The orange rucksack is looking a bit worse for wear by the way. It needed a wash so I crammed it into the washing machine and its branding has washed off. So if you have an Osprey rucksack, without the logo stitched on, the lesson is ……… hand wash it! But it still does the same job and is still my trusty companion, the perfect size for one day adventures.
I drove to the village of Gunnerside in North Yorkshire. It’s a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere. The iconic 268 mile fell race, ‘The Spine Race’, passes a few miles from here. In the winter when you get away from the village it can be a little bleak, but also beautiful on a blue sky winter day like this.
However, it was freezing cold. A day for wool long johns under my trousers, hat, gloves, scarf and even those little hand warmers in my gloves! I don’t have a lot of fat on me, despite the cake I consume, so I get cold really quickly!
What can I tell you about Gunnerside? It lies just above the River Swale. It has a Grade II listed bridge in the village over the river. It sits at the bottom of Gunnerside Gill (also spelt Ghyll). We have lots of Ghylls/Gills in Yorkshire and the North of England. The word comes from the Old Norse language and reflects our Viking heritage. It is the word for a really deep narrow rocky valley or ravine with a stream or river in the bottom.
Gunnerside Gill is exactly this………………….it is a deep, river filled ravine, running from 5 miles directly north of the village. It cuts through the landscape like it has been sliced by a knife and the river crashes down it from the hills and moorland above, and empties itself into the River Swale at Gunnerside village.
In the 17th to 19th century, through the industrial revolution, fast flowing water like this generated power. Combined with plentiful natural resources, small villages like Gunnerside sprung up, and industry flourished. In the ground around Gunnerside there was an abundance of lead. As a result, the gill was the site of a major lead mining industry during these centuries.
The area does attract quite a lot of walkers. The majority will just walk along the River Swale (one of my favourite walks) but if you fancy something a little more challenging and interesting walking up Gunnerside Gill is a classic day out.
It’s like a guided tour through the industrial revolution. All up the valley you will come across a preserved lead mining landscape. You will see old lead mines, lots of wildlife, waterfalls, dams, rivers, bridges and the most sweeping and glorious views.
It’s quite a tough walk but easily doable for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness. I say tough because all the way out you are walking up the gill side, so it’s uphill all the way. The gradient is variable, but in places it really is quite steep. There are some unguarded drops and the mine workings are not protected in any way and can be quite unsafe, so care is needed with children and animals. However, it’s worth it on a day like this.
These days Gunnerside is a sleepy little village. It relies on the income from tourism (hikers) and also hill farming (mainly sheep), gamekeeping, clockmaking and dry stone walling. It is very rural.
There was no-one around when I pulled up the car and set off up the side of the gill. It was minus 4 degrees and everywhere was covered in ice and frost, but the sky was blue and it was obvious the sun was going to make an appearance. I was wrapped up like an arctic explorer when I came across one of only two sets of hikers I saw all day. A lovely couple who took my photo for me. Hence there are not that many photos of me on my travels as I’m not really a selfie sort of person. I have to get at least one though to send and report back to my mother, as she hates me being out here on my own, so I have to send updates to assure her I’m still alive.
And that got me thinking a little bit on this walk about freedom and how lucky we are and how much we take for granted. I always tell Mum where I’m going, that I’ve got my map, compass, GPS, phone and I know the emergency numbers. There is much more chance of harm coming to me at home and in the city than out here, because I’m careful and quite risk averse. I am one of the least likely people to knowingly do something unsafe………………….but I’m quite brave, hence me being out here on my own in the first place.
Something happened the other week that really upset me and made me think. A fellow runner a few years younger than myself had entered one of the shorter versions of the Spine Race, when I say shorter, it was still 100 miles long. She was running for a charity which raises money for women and girls to receive an education in the only country in the world that bans women above 11 years from receiving an education. That woman, after almost a year of training, was withdrawn from the race and is currently in hiding and all social media posts are now deleted, as a plan was uncovered and threats were received that she would be executed by beheading mid race, 20 miles from my home.
It upset me so much and I thought a lot about it on this walk as it had only just happened. I’ve never really given it that much thought………………..I guess you could say I’ve taken my freedom for granted as I’ve always had it. I imagined what it must be like to not be allowed out on my own wandering, I’d be like a caged bird. I come out here to reflect, to work through things, to breath the air, see the wildlife, touch and smell things and to learn new things………………even if it is the history of lead mining! 😆 I’m not doing anyone any harm or threatening anyone else with my little adventures.
It’s also opened a ‘real can of worms’ as we say in the UK and a debate in the world of fell running. It’s different to road running, its more about endurance and mental fitness than speed. We run in lonely places, often alone as they are long runs and you are often separated from the field in your own little battle with yourself and your mind. I always end up on my own, I’m what you call a ‘mid packer’. I value the journey and the camaraderie, I’m consistent, resilient, but the enjoyment and self improvement is a lot more important to me that the position in the pack. So I’m never in the bunch at the front, never in the bunch at the back as I’ve usually trained well…………………I’m bumbling around in the middle, munching my way through my goodies in my running pack in a little battle with myself. It’s always been the case for big races that you wear a tracker, purely for safety so the organiser and medics know where you are, can see if you suddenly stop, are lost, have got your navigation hopelessly wrong or need some sort of assistance. And it’s a bit of a safety blanket for me as a runner as I can and do get lost.
The question now though is, is it that safe, for a man or a woman, as the data and the GPS from the tracker is publicly available for most races. So anyone can see who is running, where they are, the route they are taking and the speed they are going. You are an easy target if someone is hell bent on executing you or otherwise. It will be such a shame if that all has to change. I for one am an avid ‘dot watcher’ of races like ‘The Spine Race’ when I’m not running myself. I’m currently training for my first ultra. It’s in the UK, 50 mountainous miles, 75km, on the fell, I’m running on my own, I’m not allowed crew, and I’ll be running all through the night (unless I spot a bus shelter that looks like it might be good for a quick nap or I run out of sweets and cake 😂). I hope I’m wearing a tracker in case I get hopelessly lost in the dark, I don’t know what the answer is…………………perhaps make the data private so just the organiser can see the dots and people who you personally give the link to? I don’t know. It’s all such a shame and a shock to the system in a world where I’ve just taken freedom as a given human right and felt safe. It’s a strange world at the moment and I don’t really like it……….so all the more reason to escape into my own little dreamworld where everyone is friends, we all eat cake, the birds sing, the sky is blue, there are lots of books, and you go on these little adventures ………… The rest of the world and everything in it is forgotten for a while.
Anyway, that’s me thinking out loud, I don’t know the answer. So let me take you up Gunnerside with me because it’s so pretty, very interesting, and gets you away from the ever increasing and frightening polarised world we inhabit.
It’s quite flat at the start and you just wander up alongside the rocky riverbed.
On the way up you will pass a number of stone barns, sat on their own in the middle of the field. There are so any of these in Yorkshire. They are called a Cow-us (for cow house) or Laithes. They are used for storing food and hay and even shelter for some of the animals in the winter. The landscape is dotted with many of them.
You’ll keep crossing from one side of the gill to the other. Be careful though as some of the bridges are very primitive and slippery when icy, but very cute, sometimes not more that a beam of wood to balance on.
The valley then opens up in front of you and you come to the first site of the lead mining industry era…………………the ruin of Sir Francis dressing floor. A series of stone chambers used to store the rich lead ore or galena before dressing. This site was used between 1864 and 1880 and was an attempt to tap into deep lying deposits.
Carry on up the gill and it widens out a little and the river becomes wider and shallower.
A little further on you come across the remains of the mine office building, stood all on its own.
It was really slippery underfoot but the frost and ice looked lovely as the water had crashed down from the hillside and frozen on the grass on the way down. Some of the blades of grass had up to an inch of ice frozen on them as they pointed into the air like frozen fingers. And I have to report that at this point, despite the hand warmers, my fingers were frozen too.
As you get further up the gill it gets a little bit bleak and quite ugly. There are scars on the landscape where heaps of mining materials have just been abandoned.
On a bad day it would be quite easy to get lost up here as it all starts to look very similar with the path less defined. But on a clear day navigation is not a problem as people have piled stones, known as ‘cairns’, at intervals, to mark the way.
If you look back down the valley now it can be quite daunting, as all sign of life and the village have disappeared and there is just the occasional tree. Even the green grass seems to have disappeared, to be replaced by a brown and grey landscape. It feels a little lonely.
The next structure you come across is the tunnel entrance to the actual mine floor………….known as the Bunting Level. This accessed the inner workings of the mine.
The tunnel is around a mile long. However, when you look inside you cannot see anything but blackness.
Apparently there is an airshaft entrance further along the tunnel to gain access for those experienced cavers brave enough to want to take a look. However, due to a tunnel collapse quite close to the entrance you can’t walk too far into it.
Not really liking confined spaces, and not having a torch with me I went around 3 meters inside, had a quick look at the foliage and moss growing in there, and a listen to the echo of the tinkling gushing water, took a photo, and then shot back out again. That was enough of a look for me.
I do not envy anyone who worked down here in the lead mines. It must have been an awful existence…………………..cold, wet, damp and extremely physically and mentally draining.
A little further along and you come to a junction of paths and the aptly named sign to Surrender Bridge, by which time you might feel like doing exactly that!
However, don’t turn right to Surrender Bridge but go straight on until you reach the very last of the mines……….Blakethwaite smelt mill.
This one is right at the side of the water and is the most intact, complete ruin………………and also the prettiest in my opinion.
You will even see the remains of the old metal workings.
And there’s a pretty nice view out of the window!
The perfect place for a bit of shelter and the emergency supplies to fuel me for the way back……………….a huge chunk of Christmas cake! WOW……….. this year’s Christmas Cake is I think my finest. But I did use an awful lot of brandy, soaking the fruit for longer than I normally would (weeks) so it is really moist and the fruit so plump………………delicious!😍
It’s worth carrying on upstream for another 100 metres. You can’t see anything from the mine but on the OS Map there was a waterfall marked. It’s only a small one but it is quite pretty and worth the extra little bit of effort if you’ve come this far.
This is the point at which you turn back around and make your way back, and you have a choice. You can either retrace your steps, which I don’t like doing, or you can make your way back via the ‘shooters’ track which will give you a more direct route out of the gill.
The ‘shooters’ track is high up on the gill side so the advantage of this is that you get lovely views down into the valley. It is the route into the valley for the farmers who bring food for their cattle and the game bird hunters, hence the name ‘shooters’ track. It’s also easier underfoot unless it’s an icy day like this was where it can be a little bit like an ice rink.
It’s also a quicker route out of the gill and as the days are really short at the moment I decided to return this way as the sun was already starting to go down in the sky so I didn’t want to hang around, I was too cold.
The path seems to go on forever, passing grazing cattle……………….mainly sheep.
Eventually the path will spit you out in the little hamlet of Ivelet, a pretty little place with an ancient bridge.
It’s here where you will meet the junction with Alfred Wainwright’s ‘Coast to Coast’ path.
Take a left here and follow the ‘Coast to Coast’ path along the meadows and fields of Swaledale, alongside the river. You can’t get lost now as this is a very popular path and the trod is quite evident across the fields.
Very nicely the path emerges in Gunnerside, right at the side of the Kings Head Inn, and if you are lucky it will be open!
I was lucky! It looks like quite a plain pub from the outside and quite austere on a grey day with its dull granite stone.
However, the welcome is a very warm Yorkshire welcome. The fire will be blazing and you will be greeted like an old friend. The lone hiker with the orange rucksack was very cold and very hungry. Strictly speaking I don’t think the kitchen was open until the evening. But when I asked if they were doing food and did they have any soup the landlord was only too happy to warm me up some home made Brocolli and Stilton soup and I was so grateful!
They even had my favourite crisps………………….Pipers ‘Longhorn Beef’ flavour! These went lovely with my soup and a door wedge sized piece of freshly baked bread and butter. I was slowly revived in front of the fire.
I was rehydrated by a half pint of Timothy Taylor ‘Landlord’. Now if you’ve never had any of this, you’ve not lived. Timothy Taylor’s ‘Landlord’ has won the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Champion Beer of Britain four times. It’s a classic Yorkshire brewed bitter. It is brewed with unique Knowle Spring Water and finely selected Golden Promise barley. It’s got the most gorgeous flavour and of course………………………..it’s from YORKSHIRE!!!! No more words are needed as all the best things are from Yorkshire. 😆
Just an icy trip home to navigate, but it was worth it as the sunset I was treated to was fantastic. So fantastic I had to keep stopping for photos.
Another lovely day of Yorkshire adventures with the orange rucksack. Amazing views, tinkling streams, wildlife, frosty leaves, Christmas cake, crisps, soup, sunsets, beer and a little bit of industrial revolution history. Another worthwhile day having a bit of headspace and me time exploring God’s own county!
There have been other little adventures to Devon on business, and Cambridge to visit the big one, but I’ll have to report on those later. I’ve sort of disappeared off the radar of a lot of people I see on a weekly basis, just temporarily, as I’ve had a to make a few sacrifices. It’s 14 weeks to my Ultra run, all 50 miles and 8,500 feet of up and down, across the fells and mountains of the Lake District. I’ve entered my main training block, in addition to holding down a full time job, looking after family, and revising for an exam. 🤣 I’m getting a little tired and have questioned this little decision, but your time on earth is limited, I don’t want to age with grace, better to do it with mischief and a great story to tell, or so they say don’t they? I know that completion will be more about my survival than my speed.
I’ll mention it on here and will share my learnings and updates briefly at some point in the future, purely for anyone interested in endurance running, running in your 50’s, preparation, and other things that might be of interest. But no-one else knows I am attempting it, non of my friends, non of my running club, no-one at work…………………just immediate family and my strength and conditioning PT who is assisting me with that side of things. I’ve just quietly disappeared for a while. There will be no blowing my own trumpet or continuous Facebook posts leading up to the event as that’s just not me and I’m not doing it for anyone else, just me. I’m just going to get my head down, make my sacrifices, quietly prepare and hope I make it to the start line as this is an entirely selfish goal to prove something to myself and no-one else. I’m not quite sure what it is I’m trying to prove, and I’ve seriously questioned this life choice over the last few weeks, but I’m hoping it becomes apparent at some point. 😂 And I sort of need this focus at the moment. I guess I want to challenge my physical and mental limits, have an adventure, see if I can overcome the adversity, and just a little bit of personal growth………………….oh………………and I’m allowed to eat what I want when I want during the race and afterwards for a while which has got to be a bonus! But not before, I’m being quite disciplined.
So I suppose we need some words of wisdom don’t we, because goodness, I have really had to find some and scrape the bottom of the barrel of self motivation for all sorts of reasons on some of my long runs on these cold, icy, windy, dark nights, through the recent storms. It’s felt quite lonely and I don’t like lonely. Will this winter ever end?! So this week it will have to be Winston Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” So, if you are having a bad day, I’m talking about a running day, but it could be any day in general, remember it’s not a permanent state, just as winning or losing is not a permanent state, they are temporary. True success is defined by resilience, courage and moving forward rather than by a single victory or setback. So, on that note, I will have the courage and resilience to continue and see where it leads, one step at a time! And then I might just think about slowing down a little, I think it might be time.
