Barden Bridge

I had a day out with some friends recently, walking alongside the River Wharfe on the Bolton Abbey estate. It was the 60th birthday of one of my friends so we had a picnic, complete with prosecco, resulting in quite a merry meander back! Thankfully the rain held off, although it was a rather dull and cloudy day. We had planned to hike up Simon's Seat, a rocky outcrop that overlooks the estate. What we had not realised is that, for some strange reason, dogs (even on leads) are banned from that walk. As we had two with us, that made it a no-go area. It seemed rather an unnecessary restriction but it is private land belonging to the Duke of Devonshire and (like Sir Titus Salt in Saltaire) the gentry seem to like 'rules'. So we walked along the riverside path from the Cavendish Pavilion tearoom to Barden Bridge (shown above) and back.