A town, a dale, a river, two castles & a very wet day!

11miles 1350ft

A very wet week was forecast and as I was going north on Monday anyway I combined it with a walk from Kirkby Stephen.

I set off from the little parking area at Stenkrith viaduct....

.....and headed south across the river Eden in spate after all the recent rain....

....quite an impressive sight under the viaduct....

.....and again

It was a wet murky day as I passed through....

.....|Jubilee park....

....and continued south on the west side of the dale into Mallerstang....  

....to Lammerside 12th century castle.  It was strengthed in the 14th century as protection against the Scots!

Continuing up the dale....

....following the river Eden

Looking back to the castle....

....and again

A couple of miles further on I reached Pendragon castle....

....a medieval castle known for its legends of King Arthur's father Uther Pendragon.

This was as far up the dale as I was going. After lunch sheltering by the castle I crossed to the east side of the dale and began the return walk south....

....eventually arriving at Nateby village where the road turns east for Swaledale

Rejoining the river Eden on the outskirts of Kirby Stephen

Seeing the river here like this, would suggest the possibilty of flooding later further down stream

The Coast to Coast walk passes through Kirkby Stephen and is a popular overnight location...

The path crosses Frank's bridge with just a short walk from here into the town centre....

.....passing these original plant holders on the way.....

.....and finally into the main street of the town. 

No the weather didn't suddenly improve! I forgot to take a photo at the time, so this came out of my archive!

A very nice walk with interest along the way. Better weather would have made it a great walk!