Erratic Progress

From Austwick along ancient tracks to see the famous Norber Erratics.

Distance 5.6 miles (9km)

Minimum time 2hrs 30min

Ascent/gradient 558ft (170m)

Level of difficulty Medium

Paths Field and moorland paths tracks, lanes on return, 10 stiles

Landscape Farmland and limestone upland

Suggested map aqua3 OS Outdoor Leisure 2 Yorkshire Dales - Southern & Central

Start/finish SD 767684

Dog friendliness Dogs should be on leads

Parking Roadside parking in Austwick village

Public toilets None on route

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Directions
Background
Information

1 From the triangular green in the centre of the Austwick village, walk northwards out of the village, following the signpost to Horton in Ribblesdale. Pass the Gamecock Inn and, just past a cottage called Hob's Gate, turn left up Town Head Lane. Just after the road bends round to the right, go left over a waymarked ladder stile.

2 Walk through the field to another stile, and on to another stile on to a lane. Turn right. Just before reaching a metalled road, turn left over a ladder stile and follow the line of the track. As the track veers left, go straight on, following the line of the stone wall to a stone stile by a gate.

3 Go through the gate and continue along the rocky track. Where the stone wall on your left bends left, by a very large boulder across the path, go right on a track to pass the right-hand edge of the scar. When you reach a signpost, go left, signposted 'Norber'.

4 Follow the path uphill, to the plateau, and explore the Norber Erratics. Return the same way, back to the signpost. Turn left, following the sign to Crummack. Follow the track as it winds downhill then up beside a wall by the scar to a stone stile on your right.

5 Descend to another stile and follow the path beneath a rocky outcrop, which goes downhill with a wall to the left to reach a ladder stile on to a metalled lane. Cross the lane and go over another ladder stile opposite.

6 Turn left across the field. Go over two ladder stiles, cross a farm track and go over a ridge of rock to a stone stile then a ladder stile. Go over the stile and on to the track. Turn right and cross the ford on a clapper bridge.

7 Follow the track between the walls for ½ mile (800m) into Wharfe. Turn left by the bridleway sign in the village, then follow the road round to the right and go down the village approach road to reach a metalled road. Turn right. After 100yds (91m) turn left at a bridleway sign to Wood Lane, down the road to Wood End Farm.

8 By the farm buildings the track goes right. Follow it as it bends left and right to a crossroads of tracks. Go straight ahead, following the line of telegraph poles. The track winds to reach the metalled lane into the village. Turn right over the bridge to the village centre.

There is nothing showy about Austwick village. A pleasant, grey-built village, it has several old cottages, many of them dated in the traditional Dales way by a decorative lintel above the main door, showing the initials of the couple who had it built, together with the year they moved in. They mostly date from around the end of the 17th century. On the green in the centre is the restored market cross. The market itself, lost centuries ago to nearby Clapham, has not been restored.

The walk takes you up Town Head Lane from the village, and across fields into Thwaite Lane. To your left is the ridge of limestone called Robin Proctor's Scar, named after a local farmer whose horse was trained to bring him home after a long night spent in the local pub. One night, too drunk to tell, he mounted the wrong horse, and it plunged over the crag with the farmer on its back. The area below the scar was formerly a tarn, and is now home to a wide variety of marsh plants. Nappa Scar, which the walk passes after you have visited the Norber Erratics, is on the North Craven Fault line. The path goes along a ledge below a steep cliff. In the cliff wall you can see the different strata of rock, including mixed conglomerate and limestone.

The Norber Erratics are world-famous. To geologists they are a place of pilgrimage, and even the non-specialist can tell that something odd is going on here. When you arrive on the plateau above Nappa Scar, you find an extensive grass-covered area, with the remnants of a limestone pavement poking through the tufts. Strewn all over the pavement are grey boulders, some of them of huge size, perched on limestone plinths. These are the erratics. Blocks of ancient greywacke stone, they were carried here from Crummackdale, more than half a mile (800m) away, by the power of a glacier, and dumped when the ice retreated. Over the centuries, the elements have worn down the limestone pavement on which they stand - except where the erratics protected it, resulting in their elevated position.

After you cross Crummack Lane and walk though fields with a limestone ridge and ancient agricultural enclosures, you will reach Austwick Beck, where the water is crossed by an ancient clapper bridge - flat stones laid across the steam from bank to bank. This leads into a walled lane that takes you to the hamlet of Wharfe. The route returns to Austwick along other walled lanes. These are the remains of old monastic ways that linked the granges, high on the fells, to the monasteries like Fountains Abbey which owned the vast sheep walks.

While you're there

Clapham village, which stole Austwick's market, has a beck flowing through its centre, and is surrounded by attractive woodland. The village blacksmith at the end of the 18th century was James Faraday, father of the scientist Michael Faraday. From here, too, came the botanist Reginald Farrer, whose name appears in the Latin names of many of the plant species he discovered.

What to look for

Nothing is as characteristic of the Yorkshire Dales as its limestone scenery. It is technically known to geologists as a karst landscape - one that has underground drainage, with sinkholes and caves, dry valleys and limestone pavements like the one above Austwick. Unlike most rocks, limestone is a soluble stone that is constantly being cleaned by the action of rainfall. Soils are not formed, plants do not appear, and the limestone remains pristine in its whiteness. But it is certainly not an unchanging landscape. The glaciers which originally scraped clean the limestone pavements have left their mark elsewhere, in the deep-gouged valleys and in the clefts in the landscape where their melt waters have torn through the rock. Even more spectacular are the caves under your feet, and the mysterious entrances to them. As you walk through this landscape, stalagmites and stalactite are still being formed beneath your feet.

Where to eat and drink

The Game Cock Inn in Austwick is a traditional village pub with good ale and food. On the main A65 road just outside the village is the Cross Streets Inn, which has meals at lunchtimes and in the evening. More up-market is the Austwick Country House Hotel, which offers morning coffee, afternoon teas, bar lunches, sandwiches and an extensive restaurant menu.