Sunday, 24th March 2013

Walk: Part of the Wyre Way. Guy's Farm, Street Bridge, Coreless Mill, Lower Dolphinholme, Lower Swainshead, Swainshead Hall, Waste Lane, Lane Head, Harrisend Fell, Sykes Farm and Clifton's Farm
Start Point: Scorton Picnic Site Grid Reference: SD 504 503
Distance: 9.7 miles Ascent: 940 feet
Time: 5 hours    
Weather: Fine and mainly sunny with an occasional biting cold wind. Deep drifts of snow in sheltered places after Lower Dolphinholme.
Comments: 14 walkers. Some of the snow drifts covered walls and hedges. The stile and wall entering the farm yard at Lower Swainshead was completely covered and Waste Lane was impassible for the last quarter of a mile. (The farmer helpfully directed us across his fields to by-pass the blockage.)
The snowdrops along the Wyre were dying back and the first daffodils were coming into flower. Plenty of oystercatchers and lapwings (peewits) in the fields near Guys farm.

Scroll down to see photos of the walk

The Wyre near Street Bridge

 

Sheltering for Coffee break at Street Bridge

 

Drifts by the Wyre

 

Wyre and bridge to Wyresdale Hall

 

Icicles

 

Heading from Coreless Mill to Lower Dolphinholme

 

Evidence of Spring on a snowy day in Lower Dolphinholme

 

As we climbed out of Lower Dolphinholme the snow drifts grew in deoth

 

We were fortunate that the farmer had made a path through this drift

 

Patterns in the snow drift

 

Snapping a snapper

 

The wind had stripped snow from some of the fields and blown it into large drifts

 

An old hawthorn hedge

 

Spring in winter

 

Approaching Lower Swainshead

 

At Lower Swainshead the wall and stile were buried under the drift on the left

 

Heading along Waste Lane. It was blocked by drifts further on and we had to divert

 

Waste Lane was blocked for 200 yards

 

The drifts were very deep in a sunken lane

 

A spectacular drift

 

A snow chute

 

Heading towards Lane Head

 

What a work of natural art!

 

We eventually escaped the worst of the drifts by crossing Harisend Fell

 

It was a different world approaching Syke's Farm

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