It’s Finleys Turn Now!

Scar House reservoir with Great Whernside

I first took grandson Mackenzie out on the moors when he was about 5. He will be 13 in a month and we have walked literally hundreds of miles together on dozens and dozens of walks in England and Scotland.

But Mackenzie has 2 younger brothers and a younger sister too – Finley, Domonic and Rebecca. Finley is 11 and he has been out several times with me, as have all of them. But never as often and never as far as Mackenzie.

Scar House reservoir

Now you might ask why don’t I take Mackenzie and Finley together – well, there is a bit of sibling rivalry – in other words they fight. I have taken them out together before and it nearly always ended in tears (often mine). But as they are getting older, and hopefully more sensible, I will try it this year with a short walk and see how they get on.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago, as Mackenzie was grounded for some minor misdemeanour, I decided it would be a good time to take Finley out for the day. I packed a flask of chicken noodle soup and some pasties, sandwiches, snacks and drinks and told Fin it would be a long walk. He was up for it, as was I.

Finley at the start of the walk

Half way around Scar House reservoir

I decided to throw in some good old Yorkshire scenery – Finley is a very sensitive boy and really appreciates the views so I decided we would go to Nidderdale and walk around the reservoirs at the top of the Dale. There are two massive reservoirs built at the turn of last century to provide water to power the mills of Bradford many, miles away in the valley bottoms.

A ‘local’

Scar House reservoir is the first and biggest one – it is about 4 miles as a circular walk – not too difficult. The second one upstream is Angram, and it’s terrain is different – much harder going and difficult in places – but with much better views.

I chose this walk as I wasn’t sure how far Finley would want to go – if he got tired we could turn back after the first reservoir, but if he wanted to keep on we would walk the second. As it was he was happy to have a go at Angram.

Scar House – with Dead Mans Hill in front

Eventually we came to some jumbled stones and what looked like some foundations of houses surrounded by trees. We had reached the deserted hamlet of Lodge. It was tiny, and an information board put up by local archaeologists said it was lived in until the 1920s. Several old photos showed some of the inhabitants standing in their Sunday best in doorways, and a plan of the houses was drawn. By the time the reservoir was started Lodge was empty. All that remains are some Sycamore trees and a few piles of stones.

The road to Lodge

The remains of the Methodist Chapel at Lodge with Angram dam in the distance

The outskirts of Lodge

By this time we were getting near Dead Mans Hill. This hill takes it’s name from the legend that says 3 tinkers were buried, headless on the top. The story goes that the three were returning from a trip to market and stopped overnight in a hostel along the side of the coaching inn. The landlady, seeing the tinkers were spending freely, along with her daughter drugged and murdered them and buried them in the top of the hill, minus their heads. The tinkers had a dog, which wouldn’t leave the burial site and eventually the bodies were discovered and the landlady and her daughter were hanged at Knaresborough. Whether the tale is true or not, I always get a shiver whenever I pass Dead Man Hill.

Dead Mans Hill, with winter snows still lingering in the gullies

We eventually reached a nice spot to stop for some lunch and I asked Finley how he was feeling and whether he felt up to the next stage which would be harder. He said he was quite happy to carrying on – he was enjoying it immensely.

Lunch

Angram reservoir with Great Whernside in the distance

Carrying on, the path started to get much harder and boggy. We soon picked up some sheep who followed up us for some distance, until we went through a gate and they couldn’t follow. They must have thought we had food.

Stop following us!

Food at last!

On the far side of the reservoir there were a couple of wooden footbridges we had to cross to avoid getting too wet – and the views across Little Whernside were stunning.

Little Whernside in the distance

We started to make our way back through some superb scenery. I was getting quite weary and I think Finley was too.

It was a good walk – with a few diversions we did the gps said 8 miles. It felt like it too!

A Lapwing

Getting weary now

Evening over Nidderdale