I’ve made four journeys on the road between Ilkley and Skipton this week - and inevitably been held up by the traffic lights where a new wall is being built near Chelker reservoir. Work colleagues who travel this way on a daily basis stopped admiring the craftsmanship many weeks ago, and now tap out their frustration on the steering wheel or curse out loud in their private little mobile boxes… we can lip read you know! Waiting in line I got to thinking about wall building in general and how precious and iconic they are in the Dales. Man made they might be but they certainly add beauty and art to the landscape. As the early morning mist was disappearing on Sunday I drove up to Winskill, overlooking Ribblesdale, and walked alongside an amazing wall which seems always to point towards Penyghent. It follows the contour of the land so accurately, no matter what obstacles get in its way. As you can see from this photo, a steep natural escarpment didn’t put off one wall builder from completing his task… I bet he finished his job a heck of a lot quicker than the guys at Chelker, too.

I was hoping that the end of February would herald in some better walking weather but it wasn’t to be. Better weather for me doesn’t necessarily mean warmer – I don’t mind wrapping up well. No, I want the kind of days where you can see for miles, when you don’t feel hemmed in by mist and low cloud; days when you can really appreciate the beauty of the Dales.
In March’s magazine we highlight some of the county’s walking hot spots and we have a special photo feature on the Pennine Way which I hope will tempt you out of winter hibernation and onto the footpaths of Yorkshire.
Photo: Pennine Way looking back over Ingleborough and Ribblehead Viaduct
Last year the Wharefdale Fell Rescue Association and the Cave Rescue Organisation benefited from the proceeds of the Yorkshire Rural Awards, organised by Dalesman (see the website www.yorkshireruralawards.co.uk). If you know of a worthy community project deserving of a cheque from this year’s event then let us know. Drop an email to linda@dalesman.co.uk. And don’t forget, there’s still time to nominate people who you think deserve one of this year’s awards… see the above website for categories – the closing date is March 4.

‘Take us on a tour of your office’, a couple of friends asked while visiting me when I was on holiday last week. By ‘office’ they meant the Dales, as they presume like many Dalesman readers that I spend an idyllic working life just strolling around the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. No such luck, but I had no hesitation in agreeing to this ‘busman’s holiday’. We headed up Ribblesdale through snowy Three Peaks country and dropped down Widdale into Hawes. Then it was over a misty Buttertubs into Swaledale and onto Reeth where we stocked up with some gorgeous cheese from a tiny local farmers’ market. From there we carried on to Leyburn before dropping back down Wensleydale for a saunter around Aysgarth Falls, sparkling as a few rays of sunshine broke through. Up Bishopdale we stopped above Kidstones to admire clouds skimming the top of Buckden Pike and outbreaks of sun across the snowbound fells above Langstrothdale before heading down Upper Wharfedale. Then it was on through quiet Littondale and over the wild moorland and steep-sided route through Silverdale before dropping back down to Stainforth. Here, as dusk was falling, we had a short walk down to the waterfall, to revive some old memories, before heading to Settle for an evening meal. About a hundred miles all told - and not one boring inch along the way.
Photo shows the Lower Falls at Aysgarth just as the sun made a brief appearance.

The ever-changing light of the North York Moors has inspired many an artist and photographer. I witnessed the area’s differing moods first hand on Friday. After leaving the pleasant but cold Vale of York I was greeted by several inches of snow at the top of Sutton Bank. Showers of rain, sleet and snow quickly came and went; blue skies, rainbows - you name it, I witnessed it in the space of an hour. What a fitting curtain call then to an exhibition at the Sutton Bank Visitor Centre where three top professional photographers – Mike Kipling, John Devlin and Brian Jobson – were opening a display called Masters of Light (until Feb 22). Their photos are stunning works of art - ably assisted by Yorkshire’s amazing countryside.
The above photo is not from the exhibition! It’s one of my snapshots taken on Friday, looking over Lake Gormire from Sutton Bank.

Having read in a newspaper and seen on TV a story about (quote) ‘changing the name of the Yorkshire Dales’, did you like me curse under - or very much over - your breath? What a load of tosh. I wasn’t blowing a gasket over the notion that anyone in their right mind would actually want to change the name of that mystical area known as the Yorkshire Dales. No, it annoyed me more that those reporting this ’story’ had got it so completely wrong.
No one belonging to the National Park or Natural England has ever suggested anything about changing the ‘place-name’. What could have been said, I guess, was that if the National Park was to extend its western border - as is currently being discussed - would the name of the authority which looks after the new enlarged area need to change its own name from something other than the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Which of course is a totally different matter.
When administrative borders have been altered in the past, all sorts of weird and not-so-wonderful names have been conjured up for the bodies which look after the newly created territories. I cringe at the thought of some.
The people who live in the areas affected by a possible extension to the park have far more important matters to consider than the title of the authority which might preside over them.
Many parts of the West and North Ridings are already controlled by authorities not based in Yorkshire. Some areas currently governed by Cumbria authority are within the Yorkshire Dales National Park and I don’t remember a call being made for a change of name for the park.
And anyway, where is the boundary of this place called the Yorkshire Dales? And who decides where it is? Surely it’s a generic term used mainly by those involved in tourism and marketing or by someone wanting to sell a house at an inflated price.
As far as Dalesman the magazine is concerned the editor (me) says that the Yorkshire Dales is anywhere within Yorkshire where there’s a dale… and that’s the whole of the three Ridings!

Picture taken on Friday from within the Yorkshire Dales National Park shows the ‘Cumbria’ Howgills in mist.

I’ve just re-read Wharfedale, a book written in 1937 by those two fine recorders of Yorkshire life, Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley. They talk of things not as they once were, but apart from there being more cars about I doubt their description of the countryside would differ much from today’s scene. They write of Burnsall: ‘The top road to Barden, coming or going, gives some of the loveliest views in England. The stretch of dale has a breath-taking beauty. The country differs completely from that of the higher regions, and yet there is no hint of tameness. The grey limestone has given way to the warmer millstone grit, the hills have dark caps of heather, and there is a vivid grandeur about it all. Backward is Burnall’s dignified beauty; forward the brown houses of Appletreewick rest like a sleeping serpent on the hill. They beckon you to explore them…’
Well, I did this week and how right the two ladies were. My photo shows Burnsall from the viewpoint described.

I have a passing interest in the origin of surnames and friends will test my knowledge now and then. ‘What about Clegg, then?’ someone asked me last week, ‘that’s a good old Yorkshire name – you know, Foggy, Compo and Clegg and all that…’ he added. My friend was surprised when I told him that the original bearers of the name would probably have come from Clegg – a place just over the border, near Rochdale in Lancashire. According to one reference point the place-name is derived from an Old Norse word ‘kleggi’ for haystack. On this side of the border a ‘cleg’ is another name for a horsefly – which according to another source is also from the Old Norse ‘kleggi’ – in fact, the horsefly is still called a klegg in Norway. So imagine my surprise while out on a quick walk around the village yesterday when  someone said to me ‘it’s a bit cleggy down there’ pointing to a particularly muddy area. I made a mental note to look up the term again when I got home and found ‘claegy’ which is an Old English word for ‘clayey’. I know Yorkshire folk often say ‘claggy’ for sticky but when I spoke to an elderly neighbour about it he replied, ‘Nay, claggy means thirsty.’ I’m beginning to wish I’d never brought up the subject. Perhaps a knowledgeable reader can put me right?

The county’s vibrant tourism agency, Welcome to Yorkshire, is mounting a marketing campaign in the far East, timed to coincide with the arrival of the Hull & Humber clipper, which is competing in the Round the World Yacht race. They’ll be spreading the word about our glorious region by presenting gifts such as Yorkshire tea and biscuits, while ministers will get a copy of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Taking tea to China might seem a strange one – especially if it’s the Indian variety – and it got me thinking what I’d pack in my suitcase to impress the Chinese. A copy of Dalesman, of course, would be first in the bag. A recipe for Yorkshire Pudding – not sure that a packet of Aunt Bessie’s frozen variety would be allowed in – and a ‘teach thissen Tyke’ phrase book would also be essential. Photographs of the Great Walls of the Dales and Ribblehead viaduct to show the supreme achievements of our proletariat workers together with guidebooks for Harewood House and Castle Howard to show what class difference is all about. Welcome to Yorkshire are trying to shake off our flat cap and ferret image so I suppose they’ll have to stay at home with the racing pigeons, but a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord or Theakston’s Old Peculier would more than make up. Have you any more ideas about what to pack?

Photo shows Broughton Hall last week.

A public consultation is currently under way on four proposed extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. Residents, businesses and landowners are all being asked to let their views known to Natural England on the area between the two parks. It includes large chunks of the West Riding, including Wild Boar Fell and Mallerstang and the Howgills above Sedbergh – a glorious landscape which seems to have done quite nicely, thank you, without the protection of National Park status. As with Nidderdale, which for some reason was never included in the Dales park, I suspect there already exists an in-built preservation culture amongst locals and planners who are happy to continue without the interference of another body. The consultation ends in March and you can read more of the proposals in February’s Dalesman which is published on January 24, or by visiting www.naturalengland.org.uk

Photo shows Wild Boar Fell, Mallerstang

I battled very briefly with my conscience before deciding that the chaos created by Christmas and New Year at home could remain a little longer while I went out for some fresh air. The snow was deep and the ground underneath icy but the small track from Settle to where it meets the road to Winskill had been fairly well used by walkers and farmer alike. The views up Ribblesdale towards Penyghent and Ingleborough made the tough going worthwhile – but I didn’t have the camera with me, of course. The road to Winskill and beyond to Malham remained blocked by snow and so I headed back down to Langcliffe, looked around the pretty church there and returned via the old back road to Settle. The few people I encountered all said a cheery ‘Morning’, which brings me to the real point of this missive. On greeting a couple walking in the opposite direction both myself and the male of the pair slipped simultaneously on the same patch of ice. I landed on my backside while the other chap managed to get his hands down for a more elegant landing. Why is it that women find men’s embarrassing situations so amusing? After curbing her laughter and saying we ’should be on that ice dancing programme on telly’ she announced it was the funniest thing she’d seen all Christmas. I was beginning to wish I’d stayed at home with the housework.

Photo shows the snowy scene further up Ribblesdale.