Linton Falls

Just upstream from where it curls around Linton churchyard, the River Wharfe thunders over Linton falls. I've posted photos from here before. It is a popular spot, a short and pleasant walk from Grassington village centre. In winter it can be a fairly bleak, dark, colourless scene but the roar of the water adds drama, so that it is worth visiting in any season.

There are two weirs. You can just see the upper weir in the background of the photo above. The weirs built up a head of water to power Linton Mill, originally a medieval corn mill and, from 1788, a worsted and cotton mill, which was sited alongside the lower weir. The mill went out of business in the 1950s and was demolished in the 1980s, after which housing was built on the site (see third photo).

The upper weir is harnessed for hydro-electricity. The original hydro plant opened in 1909 to power the nearby village of Grassington. In 1948, when the National Grid took over, it became redundant and closed. The plant was reopened in 2012, using the original building and fitted with two screw turbines.

Below the weirs, the river is constricted by limestone outcrops and, particularly after rain, it sweeps down in a dramatic cascade. The bridge across the river is known as the Tin Bridge and was originally constructed so that mill workers could get to work from the village. The current wooden footbridge was built in 1989.

Autumn woods

Here are a few more photos from my walk in Skipton Castle Woods, just because it was so beautiful.

Skipton Castle Woods

My camera club had our last outing of the season, meeting up in Skipton to explore the woods behind Skipton Castle. As I've mentioned before in other posts, the Springs Branch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal passes behind the castle (see left) for about half a mile. It was built for the Earl of Thanet in 1773 to transport limestone from his quarry, which was brought by tram through the woods and dropped down chutes into canal barges. The busy industrial history of this area is long gone and it's now a peaceful oasis behind the town of Skipton. The waterfall is nothing more exciting than a large drainage ditch that pours into Eller Beck, alongside the canal. After all the rain we've had, there was a lot of water.                                     

Up until recently, the Springs Branch canal was still navigable and a small boat conducted tours up here from the marina in central Skipton. A huge rockfall from underneath the castle has now blocked the canal, and it doesn't look as though it could be reopened without a lot of expense. Rather worrying too, is that the fall was below the foundations of Skipton Castle on the crag above. Nasty! 

The 9' high willow sculpture The Huntress looks even better against the autumn leaves than it did in March when I last walked here. A little further along, Eller Beck falls away in a ravine and the ground was covered in fallen leaves. Autumn seems to be hastening on.

Janet's Foss and Gordale Scar

I'm blessed with really good neighbours on both sides at the moment, a young couple on the one hand and a young man on the other. The generational divide isn't a problem and they are all friendly and extremely helpful. The young man is about to start a new job and was having a couple of weeks off so he asked me if I'd like to take a walk with him one day. He is from down south, has no car and doesn't know the Dales all that well, so it's rather enjoyable to introduce him to new places. We decided to go to Malham. It was mid-week so I knew it would only be busy and not as super-crowded as it tends to be at weekends and bank holidays. It was a reasonable day too, dry and warmish, if rather dull. We did the classic walk: up the gorge past the waterfall known as Janet's Foss, further up to have a look at Gordale Scar and then back and over to Malham Cove.

There was a fair bit of water coming over the falls, though I'm sure there is more now, as we've had a lot of recent rain. It's a charming spot in a wooded valley. You can quite believe the legend that the Queen of the Fairies lives in a cave behind the waterfall.

Beyond the falls it's another half mile or so walk up to Gordale Scar, a deep ravine that was probably formed by glacial meltwater or an underground cavern collapsing. It's hard to convey its scale in a photograph. The limestone cliffs are over 100m high and a stream comes crashing over the rocks in a series of waterfalls. The couple in the foreground of my photo were about to climb the cliffs. We watched the girl climb nimbly and fast, right up to the steepest overhang. I did take a picture of her up there but unfortunately she was wearing clothing that camouflaged her against the rock face, so you really can't see her. (All climbers should, by law, have to wear red!!)

The stream bed is notable for its deposits of tufa, an unusual rock formed by the water depositing calcium carbonate.

It is possible to climb up alongside the waterfalls and continue on up the gorge to Malham Tarn, the lake that lies above, though it is a steep and nerve-wracking scramble. (I have done it once - never again!) Instead, we retraced our steps down the ravine and then took the footpath that climbs steeply over the fields towards Malham Cove.

Stainforth Force - and the thin blue line

The Hoffman Kiln (see yesterday) is near Stainforth, a village beside the River Ribble. Here the river tumbles over an impressive waterfall known as Stainforth Force. In the autumn you may be lucky enough to see salmon leaping upstream over the falls. On the day we visited, the water was coming down fast enough to deter any salmon. It's not called the Force for nothing. The only species you would have spotted was 'the greater tripod-wrangling club photographer' of which there were several in evidence!

There was so much water that slow-mo photos looked a little too confused, though that didn't stop me trying...

I was intrigued by 'the thin blue line'. Someone had strung a rope swing above the falls. One can only conclude that the water reverts to a mere trickle on some days. You'd have had to harbour a death wish to swing out on the day we were there!

The Brontë Waterfalls

A couple of miles from Haworth, as the moors rise up, there's a pretty spot, nowadays called the Brontë Waterfalls. It is described in some of the writings of the famous literary sisters, who lived in the parsonage in Haworth, so it is known that they visited it. Charlotte described the water as 'a perfect torrent racing over the rocks, white and beautiful'. Sometimes when I've been it's been a mere trickle but, as we'd had recent rain, there was a cascade of peaty water, if not exactly a torrent.

The stream that tumbles down off the moor over the falls joins a slightly larger beck at this point, spanned by a little bridge (no longer the original clapper bridge, which was washed away in a flood some years ago). The Brontës called it 'the meeting of the waters'.  It's a popular spot for picnics and there is always someone sitting in the most photogenic location. At least this couple's clothing blended in with the scenery!

If you have the stamina, you can walk on from here up to the ruined farmhouse at Top Withins. You can perhaps just see it in the photo below, under the lone tree on the skyline. It's not that far, perhaps a further two miles from the falls, but it is not the easy stroll some people imagine. In fact, the route from Stanbury along the Pennine Way is rather easier, with a wider, flagged path.

A torrent

All the rain we'd been having at the time meant that the River Wharfe was pouring over the rocks at Linton Falls in a torrent. It was an eerie brown colour too. I suppose such a strong flow stirs up the mud and peat. It's a pretty spot, just down the hill from the village of Grassington, where a footbridge crosses over the river. It's the gateway to several good walks up and down stream. Upstream there is a weir and a small hydroelectric plant. There are a few houses backing on to the falls. I suppose they must just get used to the tremendous noise of rushing water.

(Heck, this is my 3500th blog post!)

Kisdon Force

Towards evening, we left Muker's glorious meadows and walked down into the gorge that holds Kisdon Force, near the hamlet of Keld. The light was beginning to drop but we had tripods. Lizzie was showing me how to use Lee Filters to slow down the shutter speed on my camera in order to blur the water and reduce the tonal difference between the sunlit trees and the shadowed waterfall. I'm not sure I can justify buying filters or carrying them around, but they do make a clear difference to the end result and I think the photo looks crisper overall too.

This is the lower falls and there is another big cascade a few hundred yards upstream. There wasn't much water coming over the falls really. It has been a very dry couple of months here. It won't be long, I fear, before we're being told it's a drought and being asked to conserve water! It's been a few years since that happened.

What you can't see are the thousands of midges: nasty little biting creatures that are extremely irritating! I've a stretchy buff that I wear around my neck when I'm out walking, to cushion my camera strap and prevent sunburn. It came in very useful to pull up over my hair to keep the midges off, even if it looked a bit stupid. Believe me, you don't care a fig about glamour when there are midges around!!

A walk round Malham

A friend and I decided one day to do the 'classic' walk from the Yorkshire Dales village of Malham up to Gordale Scar and then over to Malham Cove, before heading back to the village. It's a beautiful walk but very popular. Malhamdale is an area best avoided at weekends and holiday times. This was midweek and not the school holidays but even so the large car park in Malham was full and we had difficulty finding somewhere safe to park. Once we set off to walk though, the route wasn't crowded. Maybe everyone else was in the coffee shops?

Initially, it's a very pleasant amble from the village on a good path alongside a stream, through meadows twinkling with buttercups. You then enter a wooded valley, which was sun-dappled and fragrant from wild garlic. It had rather a magical feel.

The path arrives at a waterfall called Janet's Foss, which pours into a clear, circular pool. It's like a fairy glen, very pretty. In fact the name Janet, or Jennet, is said to refer to a fairy queen believed to inhabit a cave behind the waterfall. There wasn't a lot of water coming over the cascade, as May has been a very dry month. (All the little spots in the photo, bottom left, are tiny flies dancing in clouds above the water.)

Climbing up past the falls, the path widens out again for a short while, up a rocky valley towards limestone cliffs that narrow into a gorge that may have been gouged by glacial meltwater or the collapse of an underground cavern. Another waterfall (also very meagre that day) tumbles over a rocky outcrop known as Gordale Scar. It looks nothing in my photo, though you can get some idea of the scale if you spot the small figure above the ribbon of water tumbling over the rocks at the base. I once climbed up that first outcrop into the upper chamber (where there is a much bigger waterfall)  and it is steep, treacherous and terrifying! Never again!

Thankfully, by retracing one's steps about half a mile back down the valley, there is another path that climbs up and over the hillside to eventually arrive above Malham Cove. The Cove is one of the most spectacular features of the Craven Fault, an important geological feature across the Pennines, which defines the boundary between the limestone uplands to the north and the gentler pastures to the south and west. The views down to Malham village and beyond are beautiful. The limestone areas of the Yorkshire Dales are so attractive on a sunny day. Blue sky, verdant green foliage and the pale stone outcrops and walls make a very harmonious scene.

We sat for a while above Malham Cove, trying to spot the peregrine falcons that nest there every year, but we couldn't see them. Sometimes at weekends the RSPB set up telescopes below the Cove so that people can view the nest and the birds. It's rather exciting as peregrines are not all that common in the UK.

In the photo below, the winding white ribbon is the gravel path that leads back to Malham village, which we walked down later when we'd descended the steps beside the Cove. You can see the steps in the photo above, far side. It makes them look like a gentle slope, but in fact they are massively steep and long, rather knee-trembling!

Ghaistrill's Strid

Many people have heard of The Strid at Bolton Abbey, where the River Wharfe rushes through a deep, narrow channel in quite spectacular fashion. Fewer are aware that there is a mini version just upriver from Grassington, called Ghaistrill's Strid. It's a more open area and easier to photograph than the Bolton Abbey Strid, really rather attractive, though not quite as amazing. It was a lovely spot to settle down on a boulder and eat my packed lunch. 

Linton Falls

Another day, another Yorkshire Dale... This time I took a walk around Grassington in Wharfedale. From the main carpark in Grassington, I walked down the ancient stone-flagged track, known as Sedber Lane, to Linton Falls.

This is where the line of the North Craven Fault crosses the River Wharfe. After all the recent rain, the falls were quite spectacular. There are three main falls.

The upper fall has a hydro-electric plant, using two Archimedean screws to generate electricity that is fed into the National Grid. It was restored a few years ago, as part of a drive to create more 'green energy' and to reuse the old building, which had housed local generators from 1909 to 1948. 

Walking with friends (2)

Part of our walk around Cullingworth (see also yesterday) took us along the Millennium Way, through Goitstock Woods and past Goitstock Falls. I described this on a walk last year (see here). Despite our spring having been very dry, there was still plenty of water going over the falls, which I think are rather pretty with those three separate cascades.

A little further upstream, the beck (stream) is dammed. At one time this provided water power for a cotton mill. The mill is now converted into residences and the mill dam has become a garden pond, full of waterlilies.

Wildflowers are out in profusion, among them a few orchids. I'm not good at identifying them but I think this is a Common Spotted Orchid - not rare but still good to see.

More waterfalls

Iceland holiday - Iceland has a number of spectacular waterfalls. Gullfoss (see a couple of posts back) is perhaps the most famous but some of the others are as interesting and beautiful in their own way. I particularly liked this one, Seljalandsfoss, with its slender columns of water. The water originates from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier (whose volcano was the one that erupted in 2010, bringing chaos to air travel). It falls 60m and visitors can walk behind it into a small cave. (I didn't, as the area was too wet and slippery and I didn't want to risk either myself or my camera.)

We also visited the nearby Skógafoss, which is a similar height but broader and very dramatic. It was raining again and the site was heaving with visitors by the time we arrived.

Gullfoss

Iceland holiday - There is a part of Iceland, not too far from Reykjavik, that is known as the Golden Circle, a popular tourist route looping up into the southern highlands that takes in some spectacular natural sites - Geysir, Gullfoss and the Pingvellir National Park. Some of it was on our itinerary and I would probably have felt a bit cheated if we had not visited these areas. However, once seen, I wouldn't return to these places. Too many tourists, coaches and competition for the best places to take photos from... Ha!

We visited the huge falls at Gullfoss during a rainstorm. The rain and the wind-blown spray made photography a challenge and I judged it wise not to subject my camera to the conditions right at the edge, where the people you see in the photo were standing getting soaked! The wide Hvítá river rushes over two steep steps and disappears into a deep crevasse. Very spectacular. However, I was unreasonably pleased to retreat eventually to the large and busy visitor centre for a hot coffee and to dry off!

Cenarth

Wales - We visited a pretty place called Cenarth, a few miles upriver from where we were staying. The Teifi river flows over falls, where in the autumn salmon and sea trout leap on their way upstream to their spawning grounds. It has an unusual bridge, built in 1787, that has round holes in its structure to reduce its weight without losing strength. 

Three waterfalls

Goit Stock circular walk
Harden Beck tumbles over a series of waterfalls on its way down the valley. The most impressive one is the Goit Stock Falls (below), where the stream falls over a rocky ledge some twenty feet high.

The third waterfall cascades into a circular pool. Surrounded by greenery, it is reminiscent of a 'fairy pool'. The valley was once owned by the Ferrand family, as part of the nearby Bingley St Ives estate and access was restricted. It is said that a local poet, John Nicholson, who lived in Harden for a time, was inspired by walks by the river on moonlit nights. He eventually came to an unfortunate end, dying from exposure in 1843, after falling from stepping stones crossing the River Aire in Saltaire.

Posforth Gill and the Valley of Desolation

I spent absolutely ages trying to find this waterfall!  Happily, it was worth the effort. The Bolton Abbey estate covers a large area with varied scenery. There is a walk - known as the Valley of Desolation - which I'd never done before. It follows a little stream (Posforth Gill) up the valley and eventually on to Barden Fell and the hill known as Simon's Seat. The Gill flows over this lip in a rather attractive waterfall. Whatever desolation there once was (caused apparently by a huge storm in 1826) has long since been repaired by Mother Nature.

To find the falls, you had to take a steep path down to the left off the main footpath but I missed the turn and went on upwards, nearly making it onto Simon's Seat, before I realised my error. Never mind, it was a good walk and good to get the exercise. I do a lot of walking but mostly along fairly flat paths (like the canal towpath) so striding up a hill for a change is good for my heart and lungs!

Krka National Park

My holiday wasn't (quite) all about wandering ancient walled towns. We also visited the Krka National Park in Croatia - a spectacular gorge with turquoise waterfalls, where the River Krka cascades over travertine (limestone) terraces in a series of rapids and pools. We explored the area around Skradinski buk, where there are wooden walkways above the pools and some interesting old watermills now housing museum exhibits, craft shops and cafés. It was well worth a visit. The lack of warm sunshine meant less sparkle on my photos. On the plus side there weren't so many people around that it felt uncomfortably crowded, which I imagine might be the case in high summer. It's one of those places that would reward an early morning visitor, who might see many more of the birds, beasts and reptiles than were apparent later in the day... frightened into hiding, no doubt, by the day trippers.