We've been on our annual walk up Littondale in the Yorkshire Dales today and we hoped we'd timed it right to see the Snowdrops at their best around the river banks and the churchyard in the village of Arncliffe. The first section of the walk followed the River Skirfare up to to Arncliffe with it's Medieval Church surrounded by the church grounds overlooking the river, along the banks of the river there were several pairs of Ostercatchers.On arrival in Arncliffe the the Snowdrops were on show but perhaps lacking figure compared to previous years but never the less a welcoming sight on this cold late winters day.
From Arncliffe the path climbs steeply out of Littondale and rapidly gains altitude and it wasn't long before we reached the snowline at 1900 ft on top of Old Cote High Moor. In less than one hour we'd left early spring behind and we were back in the depths of winter. From this high point on the ridge there were excellent views across Upper Wharfedale to the summits of Buckden Pike and Great Whernside which hadn't lost their snowcover since 17th Dec.2009.We then walked along the ridge slowly losing height as we decended back into Littondale near to the village of Hawkswick.
The banks of the River Skirfare
Arncliffe Church
Arncliffe Bridge
Arncliffe
Ascending Old Cote High Moor
Looking towards Great Whernside
Great Whernside's mantle of snow
The final decent back down into Hawkswick in Littondale.
Seems you had a real expedition! Great photographs of the scenery and the snowdrops. We are still in the throes of winter with snowcover still at about 15 inches. It did get above freezing by a degree this afternoon, so we did have a little bit melt.
ReplyDeleteLovely snowdrops and much better than the ones around here. looked like a really good and varied walk.
ReplyDeleteHey I see you're checking out my site from Sacramento, CA. Do you have any plans to head to the coast? Maybe we and our SO's can meet up?
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