24th January 2008 – Sharp Haw, Rough Haw and Skipton Woods – about 10 miles and 1350 feet of Climb
OS Explore Route (except that I ran a slightly less convoluted route through Skipton at the end)
Last night was a Skipton AC club night and, rather than run on the roads, I wanted to get out on the hills ‘mit’ headtorch. I’d tried to contact a couple of others to come out with me but had failed miserably. Anyway I turned up half an hour early, I had my walshes and headtorch in the car and thought ‘what the hell’ and decided to go up in the hills on my tod.
The road north out of Skipton goes straight up into the Yorkshire Dales National Park, heading for Grassington and the first ridge to the left of that road has two smallish summits on it; to the west Sharp Haw (called Sharp’er by the locals) and 500 metres to the north east Rough Haw. Both can been seen and identified from miles a way with Sharp Haw looking like a mini volcano, tapering as it rises, and Rough Haw more like a craggy ‘blob’. Neither are especially high, maybe 1000 feet up from Aireville Park in Skipton where I’d parked my car.
First off I ran up the Gargrave Road, over the roundabout at the top and then turned right up the pitch black lane to Stirton (blink and you’ll miss it) and on and up Bog Lane. Bog Lane after dark is quite un-nerving, especially with a mist rising under the overhanging trees and a mad Capri driver with a souped up engine/hole in his exhaust choosing to go up there full pelt, but it eventually leads out to the top of the first hill with a panoramic view of my two peaks silhouetted set against a brilliantly starry sky. A couple of zig zags in the lane and then it’s through a gate and up into the moor.
There are a few variations to run up here but tonight I’ve decided to go straight up the front of Sharp Haw, drop down and then up Rough Haw, back down and back up Sharp Haw and then drop down towards Embsay for Skipton Woods. After a couple of hundred yards on a track, I swerved to the right onto a mud-tastic trod; almost with my first step I had my right shoe sucked off by a pool of mud.
This path up over open moorland to the top is spooky enough on a bright sunny day but after dark, you almost get the feeling that the landscape itself is watching you, especially when you’re cocooned in your own little globe of light. Thinking about Velacoraptors from one of the Jurassic Park movies didn’t help mind!
About two thirds of the way up, I suddenly saw another headtorch on the summit of Sharp Haw; just my luck I thought ‘some weirdo has chosen to unleash their cross bred Rottweiler ~ Rhodesian Ridgeback on a sheep killing spree while nobody’s about’. So with some trepidation our lights slowly started to converge, each presumably wondering who or what the other person was. And then out of the gloom another solo fell runner emerged into my light; and what’s more she was a young lady! We said our hellos and she continued on down the hill leaving me well impressed and pretty much in awe in her wake.
Mind you I suddenly felt a bit more up for my solo adventure and soon hit the trig point on Sharp Haw, trucked across to the cairn on Rough Haw, reversed my route back to Sharp Haw and commenced my fantastically fast (and slippy) descent back down to Bog Lane. And just in time to see a very orange moon rise over the crest of Embsay Crag
Once I was back on Bog Lane, I now branched off through the fields, cutting a straight line down to the Grassington Road and then crossing it and following Brackenly Lane towards Embsay. At the bottom of a hill I then went into the fields again, disturbing a load of green eyed sheep who had been settling down for the night beside the dry stone wall. I ran this ‘flock’ before me and then passed through another field before crossing a couple of fairways on Skipton Golf Course, another field, a duel carriageway and then dropped down into the darkness of Skipton Woods.
These woods are dissected by a beck, Eller Beck, and my route went first up through the woods to where a bridge crosses the beck and then followed that back down to Skipton Castle. Eller Beck I know had been on a high state of flood alert on Monday and, from the looks of the height of the scum line, had possibly been 2 or 3 feet over my path in some places. Anyway, I came through the woods, followed the path down the back of the Castle beside the canal and came out at the bottom of the Gargrave Road beside Stanforth’s pork pie shop (tourists go there everyday to bite into warm pork pies and explode dripping fat all over their faces). I finished my run by going up the road and then across the park back to my starting place, just in time to meet the Skipton AC crew coming in from their ‘Skipton, east town, anti-clockwise’ road run
Reply With Quote
so giving me some good ideas for some runs later in the year.
Originally Posted by Stolly
)
