We’ve returned from our Dales Way adventure and had a great time. A special thanks to all those who
suggested trails [nofollow] to us!
We liked the Dales Way best for:
+ the great walking it offers: beautiful scenery, variety in meadow/river/hills/etc.
+ the villages you pass: often pretty, always useful for food/drink
+ camaraderie. Not Dales Way specific, but we met some wonderful people adding to the fun or lending a helping hand.
What could use some improvement:- the signposting isn’t the best: in some cases, it only offers directions from Windermere to Ilkley and not vice versa. In other cases, no stickers or signs are present at all.
ItineraryWe took around 9 days, sleeping in B&B or self-catered. Our system was to book acconomdation from our guidebook 2 days in advance which worked well until we got to the the leg between Wharfedale and Dentdale. We wanted to sleep in Swartgyll Farm near Oughtershaw but they never responded to phone calls, voicemail and email. A similar problem occurred between Sedbergh and Burneside, where the Moresdale Barn B&B near Lambrigg had stopped doing B&B.Addingham – Ilkley (in reverse, because we couldn’t sleep in Addingham but bus services were excellent).
0. Addingham – Ilkley (in reverse, because we couldn’t sleep in Addingham but bus services were excellent).
1. Addingham – Stangs Lane
2. Grassington
3. Kettlewell
4. Hubberholme
5. (taxi to Swartgyll Farm) walk to Cowgill (car to Dent, thanks to some lovely folks offering a ride)
6. Sedbergh
7. Beck Foot (taxi to Kendal)
8. (train to Staveley) walk to Bowness-on-Windermere
Afterwards, we stayed in Bowness for a week. We had planned to move into the Lake District, but it was so busy we couldn’t book anything for several weeks (!). Luckily, we had a nice place in Bowness and were able to make some daytrips from there. We made some fine walks around Elderwater, Windermere western bank and Keswick.
Gear:
For navigation, we used Trailblazer’s Dales Way guide. Our backup was gps on 2 phones (app: Locus Maps). When we were in the Lake District, we used an OS map.
New additions we wouldn’t go without again are our trekking poles, a couple of Nalgene bottles and some sturdy hiking boots.
All in all: we had a great time and, as alway, look forward to our next hiking trip