A half day walk between three lovely Dales villages, Austwick and Feizor taking in the hamlet of Wharfe. The walk passes through glorious limestone scenery, farmland and along tracks and quiet country lanes. There is much to see and do for all ages and interests.
I have walked this lovely section of the Yorkshire Dales many times. The section between Austwick and Feizor up Crummackdale has picturesque streams and quiet fields. The walk heads in to Crummackdale and where it meets the lane to Wharfe there is a delightful picnic place, a hidden delight. Anty time is a good time to do the walk but spring is particularly good with plenty of young lambs and spring flowers. The bluebells in Oxenber Woods are rightly famous..
The walk offers a proper taste of a working Yorkshire Dales landscape. There is a mix of of small grey stone hamlets and barns, fields of sheep (and lambs) all with a backdrop of limestone scars and rock falls. There are always farmers about their business, repairing walls, calling their sheep or one of the many other jobs they undertake.
The walking is easy on good bridlepaths unless you want to climb the hill and explore the SSSI of Oxenber & Wharfe Woods. Here the limestone bedrock is rich in ash, hazel and hawthorn trees and the grykes in the rock full of such rare plants as Green Spleenwort and Mountain Melick. It is a geologically modern landscape, it was only 15,000 years ago that the entire walk would have been under a glacier.
I prefer to start this walk from Austwick as the pub is there and the cafe at Feizor makes for a good stop 3/4 of the way round the walk. There is also more parking.
The walk is spread over two maps which is always vaguely irritating unless tyou print your section off. The majority is in OL2 but Feizor itself sits in OL41. Try the O/S app if you have never done before.
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