Many thanks to Geoff who stepped in at very late notice to lead a superb ride through the Yorkshire Dales, starting near Clitheroe and heading north towards Settle through Bowland. It has been a long time since the club took a ride across the high road between Settle and Kirkby Malham, so this was a rare treat, with a well timed stop for a morning break at Airton.

Continuing through Hetton we joined the Upper Wharfe Valley road through Kettlewell before turning left at Buckden to go through Langstrothdale, past the farms used for Helen’s father’s farm in the recent ITV All Creatures Great and Small. We then tackled the long climb from Yockenthwaite up to Fleet Moss before dropping down very steeply on Beggerman’s Road to Hawes. We stopped at Castle Bolton village for Lunch, and then continued along quiet roads to Hebden – via Redmire, Grinton, Layburn, Aygarth, Bishopdale and Grassington.

The return leg avoided the main Wharfedale road, instead using quieter, narrower back roads on the opposite side of the river through Consiton, Grassington and Embsay moor.

5 of us turned up: Geoff, Alan, Eric, Alex, John – everyone else missed out on a real treat ! It was a long ride to the start for some. Usually, club rides involve a lengthy first stint just to get to the start. But not so for me on this occasion – we finished almost in my back yard, so the roads had been very familiar to me, but even so is was nice to be taken around some less frequently traveled back roads, some of which I haven’t been along for at least 10 years. A real treat.

The Map is a 3D representation showing the actual track plotted on Ordnance Survey Open Data maps.

To use OS Open Data maps on a website I have to say:
“Contains Ordnance Survey data (C) Crown Copyright and datbase right 2020”