Harrogate and Follifoot

Sunday, 21st November

10.8 km (6.9 miles) - 2hr 35 mins

 

As the year draws on so the walking gets a bit more difficult.  This 7 miles was slippery underfoot, although the weather (thankfully) stayed dry all the way and we even had some glimpes of a (very) milky sun.

This is another Paul Hannon walk from the Wharfe Valley book and it starts right on the outskirts of Harrogate near Fulwith Mill. (GR SE 313 529).

As last week I had visited the geocaching site and our first port of call was the bridge over the railway line (GR SE 320 524) where we eventually found the hidden cache and exchanged a yo-yo from the cache for some RFU stickers I had brought with us.  Childish ??  Well, finding the caches does give a little bit of something else to the walk !

If there is a bad point to this walk it was the fact that it crosses the very busy A658 twice! Even on a Sunday the traffic was roaring down the road (the Harrogate bypass) and indeed even as we sat in the middle of Follifoot having out lunch the sound of traffic was still in our ears !

 

The village of Follifoot is delightful and well kept and after lunch the second part of the walk took us back across the dreaded by-pass and around the outside of Rudding Park.  After dropping down and crossing Crimple Beck for the second time the route joins the Harrogate Ringway to take you back to the start.
A lovely walk that shows that the countryside is never too far away - it was only 13 miles from home to the start point. A walk dominated at the beginning and end by the magnificent Crimple Viaduct.
A few photos from this link. For the record this marked 287 miles for the year - November has proved a good month with 42 miles under the belt and another weekend left !