Rathmell, Heath Farm, Whelp Stone Crag, Settle, Yorkshire/Lancs
[ 13.7 km/8.5 m] Wed  06 Jan 2010

SD 8041 5998.
There was a lot of heavy snow yesterday and I wasn’t sure how far I’d be able to drive. Keeping to the main roads I reached the outskirts of Settle with no problems. The road to through Rathmell had been salted and gritted and was almost clear. The minor Hesley Lane looked to have a bit too much snow on it to risk taking my car along so I left my car by the Rathmell War Memorial and decided to walk along the lane instead. It turned out that I could have driven along it but the walk was very pleasant so leaving my car in the village was a good decision.

The news said that many schools across the country had been close due to snow but the small school on the right looked like it was about to open for the day. The road dipped steeply down to Rathmell Beck and I had to watch my footing on the compacted snow. Higher up Hesley Lane I turned south along Great Close and through Long Gill where there was activity as a boy was carrying animal feed in a barrow and the farmer was on a quad bike about to set off across the fields. Further along the road it soon became impassable to vehicles as the snow had drifted across making it too deep to drive through but it wasn’t a problem on foot.

At a footpath sign I left the road and headed off west across the fields towards Heath Farm. The snow was deep and not good for walking through. It took quite a while to get through the fields and when I was in sight of the farm a sudden snow blizzard appeared out of nowhere. I crossed the last field as quick as I could to reach Heath Farm and some shelter. The whole place was deserted and looked like a modernised weekend retreat. A path headed north towards the pine woods and it was reasonable going thought the wooded stretch but was a bit difficult for route finding.

As I cleared the woods and headed out across Holden Moor I can only describe the going as horrendous. The snow was very deep all the way and it took ages just to get across one field. Ahead was Whelp Stone Crag and I couldn’t wait to reach it for higher ground and some shelter from the icy wind. Just below the summit trig point I found a nice rocky alcove which gave some welcome shelter from the wind so I used it to have my lunch.

Even though the sky was now clear and the sun was shining it was very cold and I kept up a brisk pace to keep warm. I descended through more bad snow to Whelpstone Lodge which was empty and abandoned but still used by the farmer for storage as the roof was still intact.

Gawthorpe House

The track continued down and I came to Old Oliver Lane which looked like it had been cleared of snow and gritted in places. I followed it back to Hesley Lane and retraced my earlier route back to the car.