Coast to Coast - Stage 3: Orton Scarside to Reeth

(Written by Gordon, posted by Ab)

Wainwright designed his walk using the established footpaths and bridleways that crisscross England. Some of them date back a few thousand years, and the Romans built a number of long distance roads for military purposes, including one up near Kidsty Pike. England became wealthy in the twelfth and thirteenth century from wool, such as that grown at Shap Abbey. The Abbey was built over 30 years in the 13thC, with some fine stonework, now recycled into local farms and houses after the dissolutions of the 16^th Century. Several narrow packhorse bridges and bridle trails have been used to get us across to Orton Scarside. Packhorses were also used to transport minerals such as lead until canals and railways took over in the 19^th century. Now, many of the little villages built to service land management in the 18^th century are dying. Wool is not the valued fiber it was and England’s mines are too expensive to run.

 

Shap Abbey

From Orton Scarside we walked to the local market town, Kirkby Stephen over the moors, where the trails are also being used for endurance horse racing. Endurance riding is of various lengths, but ridden in a cloverleaf pattern with about 20 miles between vet checks for the health of the horse. In England it is a women’s sport – men hunted- but in France it replaces hunting as the male distance horse sport. The other two countries with traditional strength are Australia and the US, both now being replaced by the UAE, which purchases the best horses and has the money to employ highly skilled pit crews to get the horse and rider back on the track ASAP. Came past a Stone Age village site and the Smardale railway viaduct. But most of Kirkby Stephen was for sale.

Packhorse bridge, Shap

From Kirkby Stephen over the nine standards – stone cairns on the high moors at the bouundary between Northumbria and Yorkshire. Very boggy! Kerry up to her thigh in one bog, Gordon to his knees. Wonderful cups of tea at a high farm got us to Keld, a tiny village with a hot bath that needed a silt trap after we had been in it. Keld is half way on the track and like many of the villages we have overnighted, heavily dependent on the cash flow from walkers.

Stone walls at Keld

Today was down one of the most beautiful valleys in England – Swaledale Valley. Many of the houses, all of limestone, are falling down or for sale, some are being renovated. The hills are crisscrossed with dry stone walls and we have to squeeze through narrow stiles with spring gates. Means only one course at dinner if we are to continue to progress. Tonight at Reeth, which shows some signs of life.

Narrow stile