For those who do not know, the Dales Way is an 84-mile Long Distance Footpath from Ilkley, West Yorkshire to Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria and passes through two National Parks - the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Lake District National Park. The first half of the walk follows the River Wharfe upstream to the main watershed of northern England at Ribblehead. The second half follows several river valleys (Dentdale, River Mint, River Kent) to descend to the shores of Windermere.
I travelled from Kettlewell to Bolton Abbey by bus and train - see earlier post on Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. Bolton Abbey is an estate in Wharfedale which takes its name from the ruined 12th-century Augustinian monastery now generally known as Bolton Priory. It is adjacent to the village of Bolton Abbey.
The Domesday Book lists Bolton Abbey as the caput manor of a multiple estate including 77 carucates of ploughland (9240 acres) belonging to Earl Edwin. The estate then comprised Bolton Abbey, Halton East, Embsay, Draughton; Skibeden, Skipton, Low Snaygill, Thorlby; Addingham, Beamsley, Holme, Gargrave; Stainton, Otterburn, Scosthrop, Malham, Anley; Coniston Cold, Hellifield and Hanlith.
The monastery was originally founded at Embsay in 1120. Led by a prior, Bolton Abbey was technically a priory, despite its name. It was founded in 1154 by the Augustinian order, on the banks of the River Wharfe. The land at Bolton, as well as other resources, were given to the order by Lady Alice de Romille of Skipton Castle in 1154. The Romille line died out c1310 so Edward II granted his estates to Robert Clifford.
In 1748 Baroness Clifford married William Cavendish so Bolton Abbey Estate thereafter belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire until a trust was set up by the 11th Duke of Devonshire turning it over to the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees to steward.
The remains of the priory can still be seen, and the setting is immortalised in both in art and poetry. These include a painting by Edwin Landseer and watercolours by J. M. W. Turner one of which, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire (1809), is held at the British Museum. William Wordsworth's poem The White Doe of Rylstone was inspired by a visit to Bolton Abbey in 1807
My start of the Dales Way was at these stepping stones
I was soon in picturesque Strid Wood. The spectacular Strid is where the broad River Wharfe becomes suddenly narrow and the water rushes with great force. The Strid was formed by the wearing away of softer rock by the circular motion of small stones in hollows, forming a series of potholes which in time linked together to form a deep, water filled chasm.
This ancient woodland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and one of the largest areas of acidic oak woodland in the Yorkshire Dales
Then on to Barden Bridge and Barden Tower. Barden means “valley where the barley grew” and the tower was originally one of six hunting lodges within the forest of Barden
The principal hunting lodge of the ancient Forest of Barden and home of the 10th Lord of Skipton, more commonly known as the Shepherd Lord. The ruined tower overlooks the Priest's House, built in the early 16th century which the Shepherd Lord built for his private Chaplain
Then onwards to Grassington along the banks of the Wharfe
For further details of the Dales Way see link Dales Way
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