'Dales road recommendation

I spent the day in the Yorkshire Dales above Settle scouting around the
roads and villages looking for decent pubs, bends etc.

Do people know the B6160 South through Kettlewell and on to the A65. Not for
the harsh of suspension but what a great route. Amazing views and nice dry
stane walls to eliminate those who get it wrong. Almost traffic free today
on a Bank Holiday and not a plod in sight.

This place www.bluebellinn.co.uk had a Morris Dancing competition running,
Got in Himmel the women were almost as ugly as the traditional participating
males we know and love. It has the full range of Copper Dragon beers though
and a rather surprising seafood menu (from Whitby).

The mileage of dry stane walls in the area must be almost beyond
calculation. A good Dyker with an apprentice moves stone, lays foundation
and builds 3 yards of wall a day. How on earth did they manage to build so
much and before mechanisation. There must be remnants of *at least* 1000
miles of wall. That's over half a million man days. I wonder what the
history of it all is?

 

Yup I clocked that too. The sign outside was offering lobster on the lunch
menu!

 

IIRC, a lot of drystone walls were built simply in order to get the
stones out of the fields.....

 

Oh yes that is the method. This area is limestone pavement. The fields are
cleared to the sides then the walls built. Over time the pasture improves.
So not just a vast investment in man hours but incredibly back breaking as
well! which building dykes isn't (particularly).

 

You were bloody lucky, it's usually jammed with bloody caravans and
motorhomes every day from the beginning of April to the end of
September... all in convoy and all doing 15-20MPH!

 

It really was deserted. Kettlewell to A65 I passed no more than 6 cars.
The weather was ok, it looked as if it was going to rain and it clearly was
on the horizon but I didn't actually get wet.

 

Ho yuss. I also spent a memorable New Year at the Racehorses Hotel.

 

Easy - If you live anywhere near Arrochar you get a contract from the
Council to build and repair dry-stane dykes. You then wait for an errant
motorist to come along and knock down 3 yards of dyke, upon which you
nip into your lorry and rebuild the dyke, taking stanes from another
section of dyke further up the road (it's a fact that a knocked down
section of wall never contains enough stanes to rebuild it, for some
reason), then invoice the Council for work done.

You then wait for the Council to notice the gap in the wall where you
took the repair stanes and go out to fix it, taking stanes from further
up the road at another section of dyke... and so on.

After a few centuries of this, there is a thousand miles of wall built -
and the Chinese like to think they know all about building big walls.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

Ah yes across the road. What took you there for a NY? not that it's a bad
place to go!

 

www.colinandpat.co.uk

Strangely enough I didn't know you pair were skiers...

 

Well I don't know about "skiers", but we do enjoy paddling about on
skis.

And your memory is fading, as we had a conversation about a year ago
when I described skiing down from the Schilthorn in a blizzard and it
brought back memories for you. I least, I think it was you!

 

It was many years ago, and the crowd I hung around with at the time (8
or so couples) used to find different hotels each year, preferably in
the middle of nowhere, in which to see in the New Year. Favourite was
actually the Blacksmith's Arms at Hartoft End, in deepest Rosedale,
where we spent many years. That's good biking too, BTW.

 

Fading? it's fucked but yes I recall.
The moral was don't drink Champers at 10,000 feet

 

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Not in my fucking street they don't

--
Dan L

http://thebikeshed.spaces.live.com/
1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr

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