The Monks' Road and Bordley

Many places in the Yorkshire Dales can be described as 'remote' - and Bordley must be one of the least accessible. No metalled roads lead to it, and the settlement (really only a hamlet of a couple of farmhouses) is almost invisible from most of the surrounding countryside, lying as it does in a secluded hollow of the hills. Although the buildings are mostly 18th and 19th century, Bordley has a long, if uneventful, history. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as Borelaie, and its Old English name may mean 'the wood from which the boards were taken' - or perhaps 'the woodland clearing belonging to Brorda'. Whichever it is, the woods have long since gone, and this is now moorland country, some of it enclosed and improved in the 18th century for agriculture. Around Bordley there is evidence of even older settlement. Mastiles Lane ploughs through the middle of a Roman camp a little way to the west, while to the east, just off the road up from Skirethorns, is evidence of a prehistoric field system.

The early part of the walk takes you to Mastiles Gate, one of the landmarks along Mastiles Lane, a superb green track that for centuries has linked Wharfedale and Malhamdale. Its origins were monastic; the monks of Fountains Abbey near Ripon needed straightforward access to their vast estates in the southern parts of the Yorkshire Dales and in the Lake District. So, like the Romans before them, they constructed long roads directly over the fells. The route over Kilnsey Moor was marked by crosses - the bases of some survive along the route. The monastic route crossed the River Wharfe by a wooden bridge at Kilnsey, and then went on to Ripon along the route of what is now the B6265 via Pateley Bridge.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Mastiles Lane was used as a drove road, when great herds of cattle were driven along the lane to market. There was a regular sale at Great Close, near Malham Tarn, where up to 5,000 cattle, most of them from Scotland, were regularly sold. It was at this time that the lane received its walls, to prevent the cattle straying.

In the early 1960s plans were put forward to tarmac Mastiles Lane so that traffic would be able to drive from Malham into Wharfedale. A public outcry quickly saw the idea abandoned and the route is still a haven of peace for walkers and riders - though more recently there has been further controversy, this time about the use of such green lanes by four-wheel drive off-road vehicles, which can cause damage.

While you're there

Visit Kilnsey Crag by the Wharfe where a great limestone cliff dominates the valley, with an overhanging nose that provides a severe test to climbers. The crag was formed when an ice-age glacier ground away the end of a limestone spur as it made its way south from Littondale. Once, a lake lapped the crag's foot - it silted up long ago, leaving rich farm land.

Where to eat and drink

Draw a circle of 4 miles (6.4km) in diameter centred on Bordley - and you will not find a pub or café. So before or after the walk head for Grassington, which has plenty of tea shops as well as several recommended pubs including the Foresters Arms, or try the Old Hall Inn at Threshfield.

What to look for

The merlin, Britain's smallest falcon, may sometimes be spotted above the moorland. The male has a blue-grey tail and back, while the larger female is brown-backed and has a banded tail. They most often nest on the ground, but have been known to occupy abandoned crows' nests. Like most falcons, their diet consists mainly of small mammals and insects, but more especially other birds, particularly ring ouzels and meadow pipits, which they catch in their swooping and spiralling flight.