Words & Photos Ian Battersby

September 20 2011

Cracoe Fells lies inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park, but only just. Maybe that’s why it gets neglected as blinkered cars race by to Grassington and beyond. I remember staring up at it on early expeditions from Bradford, but it was many years before I made my first visit, and I was determined to turn my return into a credible challenge.

So it was I found myself setting out at dawn from Rylstone village, as a hundred graceful gulls came gliding down from the silhouetted cross erected on Rylstone Fell, alighting in lowlands still shrouded in shadow. Lapwings dodged and weaved over the glowing red backs of cattle grazing beneath a stand of conifers resonating with the drill of a woodpecker. I’d left the chorus of songbirds behind in the valley, but a musical encore filled the air surrounding newly planted saplings lining the slope beneath the rocky ridge.

From Rylstone Fell to Cracoe Fell the edge is fashioned from gritstone crags that erupt from pillows of bilberry to lean out over the valley or strike dramatically to the sky. Some may come here to inspect the conspicuous stone cross, or perhaps the memorial obelisk that takes Cracoe above 500m, but for me it’s the very rock itself that makes the landscape, and provides a theatrical setting from which to admire encircling hills.Weathering has smoothed the edges of these rough-textured rocks, scouring hollows that gather raindrops in pools used by thirsty grouse. I took my time, watching dawn’s liquid light mould the landscape, and far to the south, Pendle Hill climbed clear of a summery sea of haze. 

From the summit both the Barden Reservoirs glinted under the eastern sun, honking with geese. As the air began to shimmer I dipped into Wharfedale, passing a rare ring ouzel – a summer visitor and the moor’s answer to the common lowland blackbird – before crossing the river by stepping stones standing well proud of low water. The pastures undulate wildly here, with aberrant limestone boulders abandoned everywhere. Suddenly I was away from the peat and heather of gritstone country, and into lush limestone meadow.

Grassington laid on lunch before I climbed upwards beneath the searching gaze of spiralling buzzards. Limestone pavements leaned at jaunty angles above Grass Wood, sprouting twists of tangled hawthorn. I eased into Conistone which appears beneath the shadowy overhang of Kilnsey Crag, before re-crossing the Wharfe, which was crowded with sand martins swarming around an undercut bank. Three oyster catchers squealed and squabbled, erupting into battle as I climbed into a choppy sea of rising hillocks. From Boss Moor the land falls steadily to Winterburn Reservoir, above which a pair of swans rose, fi ghting for height in breathless air, climbing over the backwaters of Hetton and Rylstone, and disappearing into the evening over Cracoe Fell, bathed in light from sun dipping toward the
western horizon.

Distance: 30km/19 miles Ascent: 910m/2985ft Time: 9-11 hours Start/Finish: Layby 250m south of Rylstone with room for several cars (GR: SD 970584) Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Outdoor Leisure sheet OL2 (Yorkshire Dales – Southern & Western areas); BMC/Harveys 1:40,000 British Mountain Map, Yorkshire Dales Tourist Information: Grassington, 01756 752774 Public Transport Hourly buses (72,72R and 872) connect with Skipton; information from 01756 753123, www.prideofthedales.co.uk.

Technical Spec
Follow the road (B6265) south-south-east to bridleway. Climb south-east past conifer plantation onto the ridge. Using the stile follow the ridge north and cross northeast over Rylstone Fell to obelisk. Descend north-east passing Peter’s and Rolling Gate Crags, veering east-north-east, descending trackless fell side to Starton Beck. Track north to Thorpe. Lane north-east then bridleway east to bridge River Wharfe. North along lane, forking left at Hebden along track to B6265. Paths north-west to Garnshaw Ho then west to Grassington. Dales Way north-north-west to Cove Scar. Path north-west passing Bastow Wood then dropping to Conistone. Road then paths west to Howgill (1.5km). Bridleway south to Height Laithe (2.5km). Bridleway continues generally south to lane at Boss Moor (3km). Bridleway south-west to trees (1km) then south-southeast to Hetton. Bridleway east-south-east to Rylstone.