A grand day out …in WensleydaleJuly 25 2014

Mum & I spent last Friday in lower Wensleydale.

We travelled on the re-opened Wensleydale railway, which was built in stages between 1848 and 1878 to provide a link between the East Coast mainline and what is now the Settle-Carlisle railway. I doubt, however, whether it ever had much traffic and services were withdrawn in the 1950s.

The current Wensleydale railway re-started a passenger service in 2003 on track that had not been removed. It uses diesel locomotives from the 1960s and steam locomotives from the 1950s. (The steam locomotive that hauled us - a real Thomas the Tank Engine - was built in 1951, making it younger than at least two of its passengers.)

Our first stop was the small town of Leyburn where the weekly market was in full spate. There were reminders of the Tour de France, which had gone through the town. Also, most of the shops had redecorated their windows ahead of a 1940s weekend the following day.

Yellow bikes were everywhere.

Looking across Wensleydale from Leyburn

From Leyburn, we caught a train to the present terminus of the line at Redmire, from where it is a pleasant walk of about 30 minutes to Bolton Castle. The Castle dominates lower Wensleydale. It was built between 1378 and 1399 for the Scrope family, whose descendants still own it. It was sacked twice – firstly by Henry VIII and secondly by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War. The Castle was never repaired; the Scropes preferring to move to nearby Bolton Hall. Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned at Bolton for six months in 1568.

There was an informative demonstration of birds of prey at Bolton, although, like us, the birds were rather lethargic in the heat and didn’t want to fly. Left is a black kite, a kestrel with its handler and below is a buzzard.

Baa baa