Route diagram, drawn from the recorded track — for the shape of the walk, not for navigation. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
A flat three-mile hour-and-a-quarter loop down one bank of the Nidd to the weir and old flax mill at Glasshouses and back up the other, with only 40 metres of rise and a firm, largely surfaced path that stays walkable through a Nidderdale winter. It starts at the stone bridge in the middle of Pateley Bridge, with the pay-and-display car park and the bus stands both a minute away, and the Nidderdale Museum and half a dozen cafes at the finish. This is the pick of the valley for an old dog or a buggy; the riverside fields are grazed so leads are needed through the pasture, but there are shallow gravel beaches where a dog can safely wade.
A small High Street cafe built around an extraordinary range of hot chocolates, with cakes to match. It is dog friendly, which is worth knowing because a good number of Pateley's shops are not, and it sits halfway up the hill for a breather.
A six-mile lap of the reservoir that fills the floor of upper Nidderdale, out along the quiet Wath Road on the west bank to Ramsgill and back down the eastern shore on the Nidderdale Way, with barely 100 metres of climbing and about two and a half hours of walking. Start from the small roadside car park above Wath, a mile north of the Sportsman's Arms; the summer Sunday DalesBus 821 also runs up the dale from Pateley Bridge. Gouthwaite is a Site of Special Scientific Interest full of wintering wildfowl and the shore fields are grazed, so dogs stay on the lead the whole way round and should not go in the water.
Five and a half miles and about two and three quarter hours, climbing out of Bewerley through Skrikes Wood to the two stone pillars of Yorke's Folly, then along the gritstone edge of Guise Cliff past the hidden tarn before dropping to Glasshouses and the riverside path home. Start at the stone bridge in Pateley Bridge where there is a long-stay car park and the Nidderdale bus stops; the climb is 240 metres and the edge path is rocky and slippery when wet. Sheep graze the moor edge and there are unfenced drops of 30 feet and more along Guisecliff, so keep dogs on the lead across the top and save the off-lead time for the woodland and the river.
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