Eldwick RFM Blue Line Walking with Jane, Nev and Loki

 

Eldwick 

RFM Blue Line 

Walking with Jane, Nev and Loki

11/06/26 

                                       

The weather for this walk was sun and heavy showers. It was actually the wettest walk for quite a while. The biggest issue was footwear and cold wet feet. In my snug warm waterproof boots I felt a little guilty but this Wednesday walk is now a fixture and there will be wet days so good waterproof footwear is a good idea.

This was also a walk of major detours due to nettles and unruly horses.

We began at the Prince of Wales Park with a steep hill up to the top entrance of the park at Eldwick. This park is always full of birdsong and although the paths are steep and shaded I confess I really like the mature trees and the general vibe of the park which I can only describe as 'happy.'

We admired the gardens along Otley Road until we turned off at St Lawrences, where stone masons were repairing the wall, and headed over the rough pasture in the rain. The worker had exchanged pleasantries as I indicated they would appear on this blog, all in good fun. This was the first time on this walk our waterproofs were donned. Only a shower but cold and heavy.

We crossed the road over Loadpit Beck and climbed a dilapidated set of stone steps up to the stile over a wall but the field was a mass of nettles with no clear path through it so we went back down to the road. This was the first diversion as we took the busy road to Glovershaw Beck rather than the field path.

As the shower left us and covered Baildon Moor we negotiated the heavy traffic and playfully tagged each other with the sticky weed known as Stickywilly or Catchweed. Guess which name I prefer? At Golcar Farm the sun came out so the waterproofs were off again. This farm is always interesting and on this occasion the innovative hen house, re-purposed kids play houses, were a draw.

This is the official path called the Dales Way Link and it started off being a fenced in path separating the farm animals from the ramblers.

This pair of horses were totally ignoring us, not sure why the horse had lifted his leg in this awkward pose. The view south was wonderfully bright with sun shining on the hills and a variety of sheep in the fields nearby.

We followed the route to a stile into a field where a lot of big horses were charging around the field in a herd. They were proper galloping. We considered crossing the field but the horses were just too scary to approach so we decided to find an alternate route. I was upset that the official path should be unusable due to the presence of dangerous animals. Some farmers just hate ramblers. Remember we care for the countryside and their animals as our sheep rescues attest.This should have been just be a short detour.

The first option had more horses in the fields and it did not look like the path was still in use. The horses looked calm enough and if the path had been more defined we may have taken this route. But we decided to try another way.

This path was more like it a good entrance and sheep in the fields. The only issue was that it ended up in the nettle field we had avoided earlier. I did see on the map that there was an alternate path just before the nettle field so we risked this path rather than going back onto the busy road.

The Palomino horse was with some geese in the field, Jane suggested they were its friends as previously we had seen a Shetland and a big horse sharing a field. Sounded reasonable to me.

Even this route was not very walker friendly as we had to crawl under an electric fence which luckily as Loki held it up for us to get under was not turned on. To be fair this was quite a pleasant walk over the fields and another shower had forced us to redon the waterproofs.

The final part of this walk, the alternative to the nettle field, seemed to go through someone's garden and then along a rough slippy path to the road. I don't think they were encouraging walkers either.

This was a tough detour as it had taken us all the way back to just above the bridge over the Loadpit Beck. This time we followed the road to Eldwick Hall.

The weather was wet. As we climbed the road up towards Eldwick Hall we spotted part of the large group of horses that had caused our detour. Some were settled and feeding now. I still think we made the right choice to detour. We were now back on the original planned route.

Just before we reached the hall there was a field with a multitude of Swallows flying around and over a line of trees in a feeding frenzy. We watched for a while marvelling at this natural event. Then after the hall we turned left along a lane towards Compensation Reservoir, now there is a name to admire. In the field on our right a Lapwing posed for photographs. We had heard and seen them flapping around but this one was happy to stand. We had also heard Curlews but not seen them.

These horses, with another lapwing in the forground, were bored and crossed their field to see what we were doing.

I like this kind of view with the 2 ridges, the far one being covered in rain and the nearer one houses. Its the sense of depth I like and of course the photo flattens this.

An Oyster Catcher was in the field on our right. This was turning into a bird-watching safari. The horses to our left were milling around watching us, told you they were bored.

Then Nev spotted a bird of prey approaching us and correctly identified it as a Red Kite, she's learning. It performed a few acrobatics around us and it was a real joy to see.

This photo is all about the weather and the depth again.

A final look at the beautiful horses with the Kite in the sky above them and we set off again down the lane.

Not sure how long we lingered here but for the horses and wildlife it was well worth the stop

At the reservoir we had a timed selfie with the camera balanced on a wall. What a happy troop!

The stepping stones needed a little care and we all crossed safely. This is a real green and pleasant view and so close to the urban areas.

We followed the route now called Welcome Way for quite a while discussing the architecture and great planning of a new build large property along the way. I loved the way we all had input into the discussion and I freely confess other voiced opinions made more sense than mine.

We had to go along another nettly path after we crossed Heights Lane.

By now the rain had gone and we were enjoying sunshine and some summer heat. The view had suddenly got very pretty. 

Below us was a nice view towards the Black Hills and Harden. Above us a monumental wall with a curious object in the middle.

Loki ran up to investigate (where did he get that energy from, oh yes... youth) and returned to tell us it was a turned over shed.

We managed to find our way past new build houses and this old converted school to The Prince of Wales park. Not sure what this area is actually called.

We explored the park a little and then after the kids had finished playing on the wooden train we headed for the car.

The last part of the planned walk had been missed because of the major detours to keep this walk to around 6 miles.

An eventful 6 miles and a more than expected 658 feet ascent made this a challenging walk. The horses were an issue but we avoided potential harm. The bird life we encountered was brilliant and in itself very rewarding. In fact although this walk bore little resemblance to the planned route it turned out to be a fantastic experience with many many talking points and interesting things to see. 

OS Map

https://explore.osmaps.com/route/32415181/eldwick-rfm-blue-line?lat=53.85868&lon=-1.83286&zoom=14.2612&style=TopoAuto&type=2d