(courtesy of Yorkshire Water)
OS Map Pathfinder 662 Bolton Abbey and Blubberhouses.
Distance Six and a half miles
Time Allowed Three hours
The lovely walk is located off the Harrogate to Skipton road A 59.Use the Yorkshire Water car park (toilets available) at the southern end of Fewston Embankment.
The walk is low level and may be muddy rather than rough .The walk is 6.5 miles but can be tackled in two halves. Wear boots or stout shoes.
Fewston Reservoir was completed in 1879, covers 63 ha and contains 4 million cubic metres of water when full.
Keep an eye out for the wild flowers, in summer you can see valerian, angelica, ragged robin, common spotted orchid, meadowsweet, cuckoo flower and marsh thistle. In the woodland you may see bluebells, greater stitchwort, wood sorrel, dog violets, dog’s mercury, wild garlic and sanicle.
You may also hear the distinctive call of the lapwing defending their nests from intruders.
The derivation of the curious name of Blubberhouses is uncertain, but the hall dates back at least to the 16th century. The small church on the opposite side of the road, dedicated to St.Andrew was built in 1856
The village of Timble (name is thought to mean Fort on a bare hill) is surrounded by small fields, probably enclosed around 1600, 200 years earlier than the main enclosure period.
1.Starting from the car park turn right, walk down the main road towards the dam and go through the kissing gate onto the footpath that runs along the western shore of Fewston reservoir. The path is easy to follow and runs along the lake shore.
2. After about 2 miles a 5 barred gate leads into the lay- by besides the A59 at Blubberhouses.
3. Turn almost immediately back on yourself, crossing a stile besides a county council footpath sign and climbing a steep pasture. Cross the ladder stile at the top and head diagonally to the left across a broken down wall to the next wall corner. Keep this wall on your right, cross a wire fence and head for a mature oak tree with a stile to the right of it. Cross the stile to join an obvious track, now keep the wall on your left.
4. After the next gateway the wall that accompanies the track is on the right. Continue through a squeeze stile into an open field.
5. Head for the gate straight ahead. Cross the stile next to the gate, follow the remains of a wall before that peters out, then head up hill towards a solitary tree in an old boundary line. Follow the old track that is visible on the ground across to the wire fence with some mature hawthorns besides it. Keep this fence on your left until you arrive at three gates. Go through the middle gate, the track down the hill becomes a lane with a squeeze stile and a footbridge into the wood.
Head up through the plantation, crossing a metalled track after a few hundred metres into a birch wood. On approaching the road, there is a gate from the plantation into the road-use the stile 20 metres to the right of the gate.
Go through the gate on the other side of the road, and head diagonally left to a squeeze stile surrounded by a wooden fence. After the squeeze, keep the wall immediately on your right until you reach a gate with a wide squeeze stile to the left, after which the village of Timble is in view. Head down hill towards a patch of trees, pass through a pair of gateposts without a gate and then through a proper gate. Aim for the gap between the wall and the house in front of you, cross a stile beside a wrought iron gate and follow a track which leads out to the road at Timble.
If you wish to cut short the walk, turn left and walk back along north lane to the car park. Take care as the road is narrow.
6. From Timble (where there is a pub), cross the road onto a tarmac lane that turns to the left almost straight away.
Beyond the last house in the village, turn right at a footpath sign onto a narrow track. Follow this briefly to a sharp right turn, then take the stile into the field on the left. Go straight on and when you reach a wall, keep it on your right until you have crossed 2 other walls. Head diagonally left down to a wooded stream valley.
7. A footbridge crosses the stream, the path climbs the far slope to a stile into a pasture.
Keep to the right of the wall and head for an oak tree, where the route joins a more obvious track. Cross a stile beside a gate into the lane, the next gate is also accompanied by a stile. Turn to the right after this, and walk uphill with the wall immediately on your right to another gate into a lane leading to Washburn Farm.
Turn left in the middle of the farmyard. Cross a stile at the corner of the barn on your left, and keep the stream to your right, heading for the bottom corner of the wood ahead Follow the bottom edge of the wood to a gateway, then head towards a birch tree at the top of a bank .Go down the steep bank to a tiny footbridge across Timble Gill Beck.
8. After crossing the beck, keep to the right, you will find yourself besides the river Washburn. Follow the river past a concrete bridge (do not cross) then join the farm track that leads through the fields to Swinsty dam.
Follow the track up beside the spillway, do not cross the dam and follow the track all the way back to the car park.
