No words needed

Looking for the wood among the trees

I enjoyed the glimpses of gold among the dark, straight trunks in the larch woodland on the hillside, though it would have been even better with a bit more sunlight. Larches are one of our few deciduous conifers in the UK.

Along the Dalesway

The Dales Way long distance footpath skirts the Scargill estate, on its way from Ilkley to Bowness in the Lake District. It makes for a good walk up the hillside, along a decent track at this point. 

Despite the drizzle, it was good to keep stopping to look back - gave me a breather too, as the track is quite steep here. You can literally see the weather coming at you along the valley!

Eventually the track levels out onto a flattish ridge, and here the views are broader as the valley opens out to the south. You can perhaps make out the overhang of Kilnsey Crag in the middle distance of the picture below.  An outcrop of limestone, it's a magnet for climbers. 

Up here there's also a small patch of limestone pavement, its deep fissures holding ferns and mosses. I always feel like I'm back in my school geography lessons when I'm up here. I can hear my teacher explaining about 'clints and grikes', and teaching us how contours on maps work, by use of a nifty plasticine 'hill' in a tub that she filled up with water, stopping every inch to gouge a contour line in the 'hill'.  

Scargill's gardens

Scargill's gardens are lovingly tended by the resident estate team, assisted by many volunteers who often come to stay as 'working friends'. The gardens around the buildings have wonderful views up and down the valley and across the fields. Tucked away in a corner is the walled garden. Once, I think, the kitchen garden when the main house was a family home, it's now a quiet place to sit, reflect and drink in the peace of the surroundings. 

Despite the late season, there were patches of colour: cyclamen tucked around tree roots; heathers in containers on the terrace;

a variety of skimmia (I think) with leaves prettily edged in pink; waxy hellebore flowers 

and some late-flowering fuchsia, vibrant even in the drizzle.  

Autumn leaves were falling but there were still enough on the branches to shimmer in the occasional bursts of sunshine. 

Autumn is a wonderful season in the Yorkshire Dales and Scargill is a beautiful place to lap it all up. 

In Kettlewell village

As you approach Kettlewell village from the Grassington direction, the road crosses a wide bridge across the River Wharfe. Although up here in the dale it's quite a 'young' river, it nevertheless meanders broad and slow through the flat-bottomed valley, a textbook U-shaped valley gouged out by glaciers over 10,000 years ago. 

I've taken lots of photos in Kettlewell over the years and for some reason didn't feel that inspired on this latest visit. I did enjoy this vibrant red cotoneaster set against the blue paintwork and stone. It's been an amazing year for autumn fruit of all kinds. 

Kettlewell has a pretty church, St Mary's, which was open to visitors. It's not that old (1885) but stands on the site of an earlier church. 

A brief burst of sunshine outside cast attractive shards of colour onto the stonework from the stained glass windows. I love that effect. 

Many of the windows in the church are memorials, as above. That below is one of a pair that were relocated from the village's Methodist church when it closed in 1986. It shows 'The Good Shepherd', an appropriate image in this farming valley full of sheep. 

Elsewhere in the village, I was drawn to document the 'vintage' garage. I don't think Burmah petrol actually exists any more, taken over by BP around 2000. It looks like you can still buy petrol and diesel of some kind here, which I'm sure is welcomed by residents although there's a rather more modern fuel outlet in nearby Threshfield.  

Walking down to Kettlewell

I spent a few days recently at Scargill, the Christian community in Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale. It's one of my favourite locations. I'd hoped for good weather to make the most of the autumn scenery but, apart from a few brief lulls, it was dull, damp and rather dismal. On one slightly brighter day, I had a brisk walk down the lane to Kettlewell village, enjoying the brief glimpses of light on the far fells. 

Long time readers of my blog may remember my account of a ramble up that steep, walled track on the hillside that you can see in the photo below. (See HERE) It was a rather hot day when I did that, rather a contrast to the chill and damp of a few days ago. It's all so beautiful though, whatever the weather. 

There aren't as many stone barns in Wharfedale as in some of the other Yorkshire Dales but they still punctuate the fields, as of course do the many dry stone walls. 

Water and woodland

I took a friend up to Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale, for the day recently. She is thinking of having a retreat and I suggested the Christian community at Scargill as a possible place to stay. It seemed a good idea to visit for the day to show her what it's like. It's one of my best loved places, only an hour's drive, and very much a 'thin place' that enables a deep spiritual connection. We stopped for a coffee at the café at Kilnsey Trout Fishery. The view over the fishing lakes is a favourite of mine and I always take a photo there. The leafy trees meant you couldn't see the imposing overhang of Kilnsey Crag in the distance but it's still a gorgeous vista. 

After exploring Scargill House, its chapel and its grounds we went for a walk up through the woods at the back of the estate, along a track that leads up to the Dalesway long distance footpath. We didn't go very far as it was rather wet, but we did go through the gate that I love on that path. It always feels like passing 'from darkness into light' along there! 

Sunday meditation: At the door

There is a stained glass window in Kettlewell church which is a depiction of the pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt's famous artwork 'The Light of the World', painted in the 1850s. (The original painting is in Keble College, Oxford, although Hunt also painted a couple of other versions.) It shows Christ, with a lamp, standing at an overgrown door, knocking. The door represents the human soul. It only has a handle on the inside, which cannot be opened from the outside. The rusty nails and hinges overgrown with ivy denote that the door has never been opened and that the figure of Christ is asking for permission to enter. Many people think the painting is related to the Bible verse John 8:12 'I am the light of the world' and no doubt that was in Hunt's mind, but it actually refers to Revelation 3:20, and the verse is written on the painting.

'Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, 

I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.'

Kettlewell village

Kettlewell is a quintessential Yorkshire Dales village, sleepy during the week but a magnet for visitors at weekends and in the school holidays. It's bisected by Kettlewell Beck, which meets the River Wharfe at the west end of the village. Many of the properties are quite old - 17th and 18th century - and the area boomed in the late 18th/early 19th centuries when lead was mined in the surrounding hills. 

It's attractive in a solid, Dales kind of way, with well-kept cottage gardens overflowing with roses at this time of year.

Keep your eyes open and there are hints of its history - though I do not know how old this engraving in a barn wall is. 

There has been a church, St Mary's, here since Norman times though the present structure dates only to the 19th century. 

Surrounded by the meadows and fells of Upper Wharfedale, its churchyard is a haven of peace, and has been developed as a wildflower and wildlife sanctuary. At the entrance is a beautifully carved lych gate, erected in 1921 by George and Mabel Holdsworth in thanksgiving for their marriage. The Holdsworths lived at Scargill House until they sold it in the 1950s to the Church of England to become the Christian community that it is now. 

I took some photos inside the church on a previous visit - see HERE if you're interested. It has some lovely stained glass. 

 

Back along the river

The return leg of my walk from Starbotton back to Kettlewell was a lot easier, strolling beside the River Wharfe as it meanders gently along the valley. It was a glorious day, though rather warm for walking. Never mind, a refreshing ice cream awaits in Kettlewell village so we can just enjoy the scenery. 

Altogether I did nearly 17000 steps according to my iPhone, so a little over 7 miles, I think. Incidentally, when I got home I noticed an odd rash on both my legs. It wasn't swollen, painful or itchy, just blotchy. After some research it turned out to be 'exercise-induced vasculitis' (also known as 'Disney rash' or golfer's rash as people get it walking long distances round Disneyland and golf courses!) It's not harmful and seems to be a collision of strenuous exercise, hot weather and age stressing your small blood vessels. It is fading now. Hopefully I won't get it again.