Wednesday 9th September 2026. Grassington to Burnsall
At the fourth attempt, today the Lads finally got to fulfill their intended riverside walk up in the Yorkshire Dales. This would involve 6 of the gang making an earlier start than usual, they will be heading for the village of Grassington by means of the route 74 Dales Bus.
This is a limited service operating 3 times a day on selected days from the town of Ilkley, the bus is scheduled to leave Ilkley at about 10:30 and only as a limited amount of seats available, 16 to be exact, so it is imperative that the lads get to Ilkley on time. This was achieved by boarding the 9:33 train from Leeds for Colin, Brian, Dave, Glenn and Kevin, John was on a slightly different route.
By 10:15 the now group of 6 were assembled at the appropriate bus stop in Ilkley and by some good fortune were at the head of the queue, unlike some other ramblers etc, one in particular shooting his mouth off about the rule of only 16 passengers.
Eventually the 74 left Ilkley and was soon hurtling along the narrow country roads heading in the direction of Grassington, this seat of your pants journey taking about 50 minutes or so to complete, thankfully we
arrived shaken and stirred.
Once off the bus first stop was the loo, then gather our thoughts and begin our riverside adventure etc. there is a large car parking area here to facilitate the amount of visitors to this particular spot along with some small parkland suitable for picnics etc. In one of these areas we stopped to take a look at a tree sapling take from the (Sycamore Gap Tree) from here we soon found ourselves heading down the footpath leading to the river , at this point the lads took a left turn through a narrow gap in the wall and were soon in open meadows following the river down stream heading for the picturesque village of Burnsall some 3 and a half miles away.
A couple of rest stops were taken has we slowly made our way to the Hebden suspension bridge that helps you cross the river at this point, slightly better than using the stepping stones, although it is only one way traffic by methods of the bridge. The lads waiting their turn to experience this crossing knowing full well when they get to the other side a little more urgency will be required to eventually reach the Red Lion pub in Burnsall. This is where the returning bus to Ilkley stops if you get there on time ( 1:26 ) We all managed to reach this bus stop with only a few minutes to spare, no problem with the amount of passengers on this
return journey a great relief to us at this point.
Once back in the town of Ilkley the driver kindly dropped us off in close proximity to the Bar T’at pub where the lads now met up with 3 more of the gang, John Howarth, Derek and Mark to partake in a late lunchtime meal etc. It was a leisurely lunch interspersed with various conversations about this that and the other, our meals were most enjoyable in this very relaxed atmosphere here at this particular pub.
Some future outings were discussed and planned before it was time to leave Ilkley and make our respective journeys home, it was almost 3:30 as the lads reached both the Bus and Railway stations.
What the Lads achieved today was both exhilarating at some points but challenging at others.
Cheers Everyone for taking part.
Photos to follow
