In search of a Nuttall... (29th & 30th June 2013)

I've been very lucky to get in a lot of varied hill walking this year so far, which is perfect for my forthcoming ML assessment and I'm pleased to say that it has very much been in great weather most of the time. Now I do put up a lot of blogs on my trips into the mountains, and this one will be no exception. However, we start with a slight twist from the norm.

At the Levellers concert in Grassington, L-R; Sam, Lorna, Ruth, Emily, James and me. This one was taken by Imogen.

I certainly don't claim to be a musical expert, but I've been introduced to some great folk bands by my friends over the past year. Imogen is a big fan of the Levellers and we had tickets on Saturday for a concert they were performing for the final night of the Grassington Festival. Standing up in a big crowd watching a band - it was due to be a first for me as all the previous gigs I had attended had been sitting down. Told you I'm a novice ;-). We set off across to the green and lush Wharfedale on Saturday afternoon with Lorna and Sam. We were rendez-vous-ing with the whole Fisher Family near the small hamlet of Yockenthwaite, located below the one and only Yockenthwaite Moor; proclaimed by the Nuttalls to be one of the boggiest hills in Yorkshire. No sign of any bog for us though thankfully as it was a lovely sunny afternoon and we followed a picturesque traverse path along the southern rim of the valley for a short distance among limestone outcrops and flowery meadow. Returning back along the wooded River Wharfe, our walk was followed by a lovely riverside picnic before we headed down valley to the market town of Grassington (and yes, I confess to pronouncing it Grarsington). The gig itself was an experience and a half; lots of colour and certainly what I would describe as high intensity music combined with crowd 'jostling'. We had prime position right down the front near the stage.

Having absorbed lots of sound for a couple of hours, the bleak, drizzly desolation of Firth Fell created a stark contrast for Imogen and myself as we headed out from the village of Buckden later on in the evening. We had decided that we fancied a wild camp in the Yorkshire Dales, so after some studying of the map a few days prior had settled upon the broad grassy ridge dividing Wharfedale and Littondale as a suitable location. Having followed an increasingly indistinct bridleway uphill for about half an hour, we arrived at a suitably flat step in the hillside just before the windy plateau of the ridge. The tent was popped into action and we crashed out on a fine mattress of Yorkshire moorland grass.

Imogen on Horse Head with our long ridgeway walk in view behind.

Now this is where we a brought onto the subject of this post. The Nuttalls in this case being a list of hills in England or Wales in excess of 610 m (the classic 2000 ft cut off) but being 'distinct tops' as defined in detail by the two volume 'Mountains of England and Wales' by John and Anne Nuttall. The books are a fine piece of work and are just what every enthusiast of English and Welsh hills needs on their bookshelf. Our walk on Sunday would take us over one of the above defined summits, however having not consulted my hill lists 'app' prior to heading out, I was left pondering over which of the many OS marked spot heights along our 7 km moorland romp would indeed be the one and only 'Nuttall'. The 1:25 000 OS map unfortunately does not quite commit any of the spot heights along the stretch between Firth Fell and Horse Head to the all important 610 m; the plateau is at an almost consistent 600 m altitude, with a multitude of spots at 605, 608, 609 m and all in between. Of course the devil is always in the detail and this is a perfect reason for these wonderfully illustrated books being a must on my list for Father Christmas this year. I await with much anticipation the detailed reasoning behind this  minor discrepancy between map and highly researched piece of writing about the British Hills. It is exactly this sort of discussion that gives hill bagging a peculiar but unique appeal. Upon our return, I have of course now located the actual top as defined by the Nuttalls as being the Cairn on Birks Fell - we didn't actually touch it giving a great reason to go back!