Around Wandale Beck
Walk date – 14th September 2025
Distance – 5 miles
Weather – no rain, overcast, low cloud, cool breeze
We had planned for a walk on Wednesday but the camera was playing up so we had to abandon it. When I looked through the viewfinder I could only see very fuzzy and out of focus images and it didn’t make any difference in which direction the focus ring was turned. Obviously there was something amiss with the focus which meant that I had no clue as to what I was taking a shot of, which is no good at all when out on a walk and you have no idea what you’re looking at, or even whether its in focus or not. Anyway the pouring rain and strong winds took over from that day to this and using the camera on a walk was out of the question anyway so I put it away until yesterday. In the meantime I mulled over getting it repaired or perhaps buying a new one. I took the camera out again yesterday, had a look through the viewfinder and was surprised to see a perfectly clear image. We had done nothing by way of repair but somehow in the intervening days between Wednesday and today (Sunday) everything had gone back to normal. The weather today was poor with overcast skies, as usual, and plenty of very low cloud everywhere so it wasn’t a day to be out on the fells. In view of that we opted to stay in the east and take a low level walk just to try the camera out. If it worked we would have some photos to upload and if it didn’t then we at least would have had the benefit of being outdoors and walking somewhere for a couple of hours. We have had a lot of rain lately so everything was very wet and muddy, and all the paths were running with water and/or full of big puddles.
Route
Handley’s Bridge – Murthwaite Park – Murthwaite – Murthwaite Rigg – field path below Harter Fell – Adamthwaite Farm – old packhorse route below Wandale Hill – Narthwaite – Handley’s Bridge
Looking along the A683 in the Rawthey Bridge direction from the lay-by just below Handley’s Bridge. Its a dull, damp morning with grey skies everywhere and lots of very low cloud obscuring most of the fell tops. The lay-by has no parking charges and was empty when we arrived.
We walked the short distance back up the road from the lay-by to Handley’s Bridge which is easily identified by the metal gate across its entrance. The bridge spans the River Rawthey.
The Rawthey river tumbling down to Sedbergh, almost as if it was in a hurry to get there. This photo contrasts sharply with the one we took on our previous walk (28th May 2020), when the water level was much lower. The rock slabs bordering its banks were visible then and the river was almost at a standstill. Too much foliage today to see very much but the shot gives some idea of how full and fast flowing the river was today.
The view as we walked across the field towards the wooded area below Murthwaite Park. A patch of the A683 was just visible between the trees below and the low cloud had blotted out the view of Wild Boar Fell in the distance.
Towards the end of the field path is a ford which crosses Wandale beck just before it flows into the Rawthey. We knew that there were stepping stones but we hadn’t used them on our previous walk, there was no need to as the beck was almost dry.
However we had no such luck today as the beck was running high and fast and the stepping stones were well below the waterline. The path through the woodland is on the other side of the beck as can be seen so we were a bit stuck, as the expression goes. We hunted around for a few minutes trying to find a way across but with no success so we had an ‘executive meeting’ and came to the decision to abandon it and return to Handley’s Bridge.
We turned tail and hadn’t gone more than a few steps when we noticed this bridge just a little lower down from the ford crossing. Presumably it is there to provide access between the two fields for both livestock and farm vehicles. We thought if we turned left once we had crossed it and walked back towards the ford we might find some access to the woodland and the path going through it. We found a small gate in the field fence, complete with the arrowed waymarker symbol, which led us straight onto the path we needed.
From the path I took this shot of the beck looking towards the broken down gate shown in a previous photo. Even the lower section of wooden barrier (we call them sheepstoppers) across the beck was under water and was being pushed backwards by force of the flow.
We carried on along the path through the woodland, which felt very muggy as there wasn’t any air movement at all, and just before we stepped out onto the open moorland I took this shot looking back along the path we had used.
It was more than refreshing to emerge onto the open moorland across Murthwaite Park as walking through the wet long grasses felt as though we were taking an extended shower. Trouser bottoms, jacket sleeves and hems, even hands were instantly soaked through at the slightest contact and our boots only got wetter and wetter. On the skyline Harter Fell’s top is obscured by the low cloud. The barn, on the skyline to the right of Harter Fell, …..
….. is this one, and when we has passed it I took a look back for a shot of it and of Cautley Crag. The barn appeared but Cautley Crag didn’t, it was hidden somewhere in that low cloud on the skyline.
A look back at the gate we have just passed through and where the wall curves down to a cluster of buildings on the hillside below us.
A short distance from the previous shot and from this track there was a better view of the buildings which we assumed to be the farmstead at Murthwaite. There was no sign of any farming activity or machinery and it was difficult to decide whether it was a working farm or not. The house looked as though it was fit for habitation so perhaps its just a holiday let these days. We turned around and walked up the track for a short distance to …..
….. this derelict farmhouse which we came across on our previous walk along here …..
….. and this is the other end of it. It seems to have been quite an extensive two storey building and built in the traditional manner using local stone. This was the first of several such buildings we were to come across during our walk.
From the derelict farmhouse we had more long, wet grass to walk through as we walked across Murthwaite Rigg towards Adamthwaite farm. On the skyline we had a view of Grere Fell and Adamthwaite Bank which were now clear of low cloud although Harter Fell to the right still had a few wisps hanging around its top. We intended using a path across the fields instead of the well established track going around Harter Fell so we kept a lookout for the junction.
We missed it initially and found ourselves on the afore-mentioned track instead. From the track we looked around for any hint as to where it might be and spotted a wooden fence post with what looked like an arrowed waymark sign attached to it. We back tracked a few paces through the long grass and eventually found this old stone stile whose steps were green with moss and which obviously hasn’t been used very much. The path indicated on the OS map didn’t exist on the ground so we made our way across using the gps, which did show the marked path, as our guide.
The gps guided us through several fields and across broken down walls and eventually brought us to this gate, again with a waymarker sign, which we passed through …..
….. and were immediately met with this stile across a line of fencing, the top line of wire was barbed but the same wire which ran along the upper wooden rail had been stripped of its barbs which made the stile crossing less fraught than it might have been.
A look back shot showing how close together the gate and the stile were.
Adamthwaite farm finally came into view from our elevated position on the slopes of Harter Fell. There still wasn’t an actual path on the grass but …..
….. there was a series of way mark posts which we used until a semblance of a path began to appear. The elevation of the path was constantly changing but eventually …..
….. we reached the track leading down to the Wandale beck crossing marked by these old gateposts.
The watersmeet where Adamthwaite Sike (L) and Stonely Gill (R) combine to form …..
….. Wandale beck …..
….. and a look back at the land bridge between them. From here there was just a short walk up the hill to a gate which led around a barn and into …..
….. the farmyard where this old Leyland tractor took J down one of his memory lanes. He had driven one of these when it was taken in part exchange by an agricultural business he worked for when he was a young man. He would also accompany his boss to ploughing competitions where they would advertise and demonstrate the latest tractors and ploughing equipment. Do ploughing competitions still take place in this era of computerised tractors? I hope they do as it would be continuing a well established tradition and its interesting to watch, especially when horses, and not horse power, are used.
From the farm we took to the track leading us along the old packhorse route below Wandale Hill. Very wet along the whole length but by this time it didn’t make a great deal of difference as we already had wet boots and trousers.
We passed an old wooden cart abandoned beside the track …..
….. and a look back at Harter Fell, now clear of the low cloud, where we noticed a derelict barn below the wall.
A view of Wild Boar Fell on the skyline as I took a look across to the wooded slopes of Murthwaite Park. The grassy area above the woodland is where we emerged after our walk through the woods, In the dip below the trees is Wandale beck.
We came across several derelict buildings as we walked the old route, and this was one of them. We had assumed it would be another old barn but …..
….. when the path curved around alongside it we could see that it was considerably bigger than a barn and was probably an old farmhouse or cottage. Probably a one storey building judging by the height of the gable end walls as they weren’t high enough to accommodate an upper floor.
Shortly after we came across this structure which had some interesting features which suggested a rather grander building than the previous one. The gable ends were much taller, suggesting an upper floor, there was an imposing entrance porch with inserts in both walls which suggested storage areas of some kind, window spaces with dressed stonework and what once might have been a courtyard.
The building extended for some distance which wouldn’t fit into one shot so this is the other end of it.
A look back at the old farmhouse and yet another building in close proximity to it as we continued along the track. A little further along the track deteriorated into a stream bed which was quite deep and so we took to walking the grass above it until it abruptly turned and made its way down to join Wandale beck. After that we back walking a grassy but muddy path again.
We arrived eventually at the flat and grassy final slope of Wandale Hill above Narthwaite where there is a good view of Yarlside whose steep sides in all directions present quite a challenge to walkers. The lower slopes of Kensgriff are just in front of Yarlside across the middle foreground.
Also on view behind us were Randygill Top and behind that is the summit of Green Bell.
The farm buildings of the hamlet of Narthwaite come into view as we drop down the hill and make our way back through the buildings to the track leading back to Handley’s Bridge. Apparently one of the Narthwaite buildings once offered a refuge for Quakers by providing a hidden room where they could hold their Meetings during the time of religious persecution in the 1600s.
From the farm we made our way back down to Handley’s Bridge and …..
….. after crossing the bridge and turning right onto the A683 we walked the short distance back to the lay-by and the car. By this time our trouser bottoms were soaked through and caked with mud ,and our boots and socks were thoroughly soddened. I could even feel my toes squeezing water from my socks as I walked along. Once we were back at home the trousers and socks were peeled off and put straight into the washing machine while J removed the insoles to dry separately and then scrubbed the worst of the mud off the boots before leaving them to dry out. They are still drying out as this report is being written. I don’t think we have ever been as wet as we were today especially considering that not one drop of water fell on us from the sky! The walk photos turned out to be ok though but I’m still mulling over what to do about the ‘iffy’ camera.