Tomorrow we start the final bit of our Swaledale walk, about 50 miles over five days. We did two 10 mile sections as day walks, here’s a few photos…

Day 2 was Brafferton to Thirsk. There was a fair bit of road walking which we’re never very keen on. My friend described this bit as a bit industrial, which I think is a bit harsh, but it’s more what I call farm land as opposed to countryside. We won’t get to the really picturesque part of Swaledale until we reach Richmond.

The Swale Way isn’t one of the popular long distance walks, so it’s occasionally sign posted with the little yellow arrows, otherwise its map reading, which we enjoy the challenge of. It also means some of the paths are a little overgrown, this was along the edge of a field of oil seed rape, it was chest high…

For this part of the walk there isn’t much riverside walking, it depends where the public footpaths go, but we did see some lovely old bridges. This one is an old packhorse bridge on the outskirts of Thirsk, built in 1672 with a grant of £20, a huge amount of money in those days. Packhorse bridges were designed to be just wide enough for a laden horse to cross, about 5′ wide, but also it has low sides to allow clearance for the horse’s panniers.

The walk that day ended in Thirsk which is a lovely old market town, bustling with visitors as it was May bank holiday.

Last weekend we walked from Thirsk to Mawnby, we were hoping to walk further but the clouds looked very ominous (thunder had been forecast) and diversions due to collapsed bridges, cropped fields and the occasional misunderstanding of the instructions had already made an 8 mile walk into a 10 mile walk.

We walked through some lovely woodland, a few bluebells were still in flower to give a little scent…

The walk took us through Thornton Stud, formerly a horse racing stud, now it seems to have been converted to houses. It still has what were obviously some very grand gates, now sadly looking a little dilapidated.

Tomorrow we start the rest of the walk, 50 miles in 5 days to the source of the Swale. I’ll try and post a couple of photos each day. If anyone is one Strava, you can see my progress on there, I think I’m just under my name (Margaret Creek)