Saturday Walk -23th May 8.6 miles. Harder Category from Pateley Bridge to Brimham Rocks and back via the Nidd

The walk will start from the long stay car park on Nidd Walk – next to Wildings Cafe at 9:00am. It costs £2.20 for over 4 hours. I’ve attached a map to the email that went out show the location of the car park. You can pay by cash, card or by phone. There were some issues one time I was there, so don’t rely on just one of these methods. There are toilets in the car park over the road near the start of the walk, but I’d appreciate it if you could use them before we set off at 9:00.

I’m hoping we will be eating at Wildings café, next to where we are leaving the cars.  I’ve messaged to book for 1:15pm but not had a response as yet. I’ve seen a post on Instagram which suggests the owner is having a little break this week and they’ll be open again on the 20/5. So that should mean they’ll be OK with my booking. However, I’ve no idea if they’ll want a pre-order or not and the café no longer has a website; they’re just on social media these days. Anyway, fingers crossed it will all work out OK. Worst case scenario is that we will have to take a packed lunch and find somewhere to sit.

We leave the car park and head up the main street which bends round to the right at the top. We keep going along the street a bit further until we see the footpath sign on our left. The climbing continues up the steps and then on a well-defined path. We meet small lanes and wiggle up little paths between houses. We join the Nidderdale Way at times. You may recognise some of the paths on this walk from a previous Brimham Rocks walk and also another walk I do from Dacre Banks. There’s the odd bit of crossing little becks, so you might find a pole useful. We eventually reach Brimham Rocks and the food stall there, plus there are toilets here. We will stop for a short break (10 minutes max) where you can drink your own drinks, eat your own snack and use the facilities.

The descent starts after this, and we pick up paths some of you will know. We pass through Smelthouses on our way down to the Nidd and then walk back to Pateley by the river, through Glasshouses.  

We may encounter some muddy stretches on this walk, if we have any rain between now and then. There’s a variety of stiles and we may encounter livestock in the fields.

Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear, which take account of the weather forecast, and bring a drink and a snack. I do my best to assess the weather and the likely walking conditions but would ask everyone to decide whether a particular walk is right for them on that day. Please note that everyone taking part in the walk does so at their own risk.