Terry Marsh - The Dales Way: From Ilkley to the Lake District through the Yorkshire Dales

Lush meadows in Springtime, above Beckfoot (Stage 5)

It is 25 years since I worked on the first edition of this guidebook, and in the meantime, I have re-walked every part of the Dales Way more than once while working on other projects.

When it came to this new edition, I again walked the route in its entirety between October 2016 and August 2017. The enchantment I experienced during that first effort has reduced not one iota the Dales Way is every bit as beautiful and charming and agreeable as ever it was. In some ways, because odd kinks have been ironed out and some passages improved, the entire route is rather better than it was, although overall little has changed. This still ranks as the finest multi-day walking route in Britain on which to cut your teeth.

Having several long-distance walks under my belt, I know the importance of maintaining daily progress, of not falling behind schedule, especially if time is limited. But I also know that too much progress can focus your mind more on the end of the walk rather than what there is to enjoy along the way. Keeping going, sticking to 22, 25, 28km (14, 16, 18 miles) each day, simply becomes a route march, and if you apply those tactics to the Dales Way you will be back home in no time, and possibly wondering what all the fuss was about, largely having missed the point.

With so much of interest concentrated in so (comparatively) short a walk, for a full enjoyment of the process it is vital to allow time to explore and potter about, to paddle in the streams and rivers, to visit churches (and pubs), to get something of a feel for the lifestyle that permeates the course of the Way and of the history that has fashioned the land it traverses. Generally, it is not a bad idea to take your cue from the rivers you will follow nowhere do they charge headlong, save for the odd moment of madness, preferring to meander gently, switching this way and that to inspect nooks and crannies, going with the flow. You should do the same.

Terry Marsh
January 2018

Easy woodland walking around Brigflatts (Stage 5)

INTRODUCTION

About the Dales Way

The total distance of the Dales Way is 126km (78.5 miles), give or take a few strides. Officially, the Way begins in Ilkley, but there are links to Leeds, Bradford and Harrogate that introduce a special dynamic of starting in major urban centres and walking out into the countryside, to the shores of Englands largest lake. These links are not included in this guide, but details can be downloaded from www.dalesway.org/link_routes.htm.