The Calf and Calders from Bowderdale

[martin.h]

A repeat of a walk we did a couple of years ago, one that we really enjoyed because of the feeling of solitude we had whilst walking beside the Bowderdale Beck.

We parked up just over the bridge in the little hamlet of Bowderdale, there's a few cottages, residential and holiday lets, a nice quiet little place away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The weather was brilliant, sunshine in abundance we couldn't have asked for better, it was going to be a warm one but there was no rush today.

We set off up the road to the track that leaves it on the left,



this is part of the Dales Highway. After about 1.5 km the path splits, straight forward the Dales Highway continues, where a path starts dropping down to the beck to the left is where we were going, you can see Great Yarlside away off in the distance.



This path starts to level off and remains just above the beck for about 3 miles







Great Yarlside close up





before it starts a rising traverse of the hillside up towards a little tarn at around SD671975 this is where it re-joins the Dales Highway for the walk up to the trigpoint on The Calf.

Views from the tarn





On the summit the views were fantastic







we decided to go a bit further along the Dales Highway and visit Calders, at just under a mile and a half round trip it was worth it just for the views.











Towards The Calf and the start of our return journey



We met a few locals on the way back, they weren't bothered by our presence



When we got back to The Calf our route back to the car was along the Dales Highway taking in Hazelgill Knott and
West Fell, a nice easy walk with some lovely views of the near Howgills and ahead towards the northern Pennines and west towards the Lakes.















We decided to have a nice long lunch break on West Fell just at the point before we started the final descent back to Bowderdale.



This is a nice short day out in the Howgills, we met three couples whilst out so it's pretty quiet. We'll probably start from Bowderdale again in the future but do the ridge on the other side of Bowderdale ascending Randygill Top (or Great Yarlside) from the beck and working our way back

Cheers.

[Alteknacker]

Nice report and pics. I walked this area in early (frosty!) 2017: I never fail to be surprised how different a hill in summer can be from the same hill in winter!

[Fractral]

Been a few years since I was last in the area (2017 I think ) but I remember being astonished at how remote upper Bowderdale felt, considering it's still in the dales. One of my favourite places to walk in England for sure.