Distance Covered: 5.5 miles Time to complete walk: 3 hours
Safety Tips: Take care in lambing season April/May as the sheep can be protective at this time of year. Be careful at the road junctions in Bainbridge, the cars can go faster than usual on all the roads within the village.
A slice of Wensleydale starting from the village of Bainbridge and then following a former railway line beside the River Ure and returning on a path through farmland and a nice detour to the picturesque little hamlet of Skell Gill. Some small climbs but nothing too strenuous.
The Bainbridge Walk
From Middlesbrough follow the A66 through to Darlington and then join the A1 south to junction 51 and follow the road signs to Leyburn on the A684. Keep on this road until you reach Bainbridge. Parking in Bainbridge is nearby the village green and free but has a donation box.
Map of the Bainbridge walk
The Walk
From the roadside at the village green, head towards the Rose and Crown Hotel.
Head towards the Rose and Crown Hotel
To the right of the hotel head down the road which passes the Friends Meeting House.
Walk past the Friends Meeting House
Head over the bridge over the River Ure. Straight after crossing the bridge look for a squeeze stile to the left.
The River Ure
Squeeze Stile to the left
Go to the right up the hill diagonally to join the former railway line bed. Go through a kissing gate.
Head up the hill to the right diagonally
Go through the kissing gate
Follow this easy grass track following the River Ure and going the several stiles and gates most of them waymarked.
Go through gates and stiles
At a dip in the track go to the right slightly and back to the left over a stile
Go over stile at the dip in the track
Keep following the obvious track following the course of the river through more gates and stiles
Keep on the track
Go over the stile
Eventually the track bends to the right, but instead of following it head to the left and over a stile before some farm buildings.
Follow the track to the left
Go over the stile
Keep to the edge of the small field and pass through a kissing gate onto a lane
Go through the kissing gate
Turn left onto the lane
Follow the lane past Cams House until it comes to Old Cams House where the road ends. Go past the house and the road swings to the right over a cattle grid.
Old Cams House
Follow the track past Old Cams House
Go over the cattle grid
Look for a turn off to the left and diagonally up a grassy hill. Follow this over the top of the hill.
Follow the grassy track over the hill
Head to a gate which leads to a road
Head towards the gate
Go through gate and over the road
Head through the gate on the opposite side of the road
Go through the gate opposite
Follow the track which veers to the left up another climb. Half way up look for a gate to the right
Follow the track to the left
Follow the track up the hill
Go through the gate
Through the gate, keep on the walled track keeping the wall to your right.
View to the right
Go through the stile to your right signposted as permissive path
Go over the bridge
Go through a gate to your right and then through another gate and then follow the path passing some farm buildings
Gate to the right
Go through the gate
Go past the farm buildings
Keep on the track with the wall to your right past a signpost and shortly look for a signpost up a grassy path to your left and head for a signpost near a wall
Head up the grassy track
Look for a gate near the wall
Follow the track down to the left keeping the wall to your right
Look for the signpost at the wall
Follow the track down
Keep following the track down going through a gate and keep on the walled track until you come to the pretty hamlet of Skell Gill
Follow the track down
Walk past a pretty cottage in Skell Gill and to a small humpback bridge
Humpback bridge at Skell Gill
For a nice diversion or pitstop head through a squeeze stile to the right before the bridge. Great spot for a picnic.
Squeeze Stile to the right
Skell Gill
Head back over the bridge and follow the road out of Skell Gill
Follow the road out of Skell Gill
At a junction in the road turn right
Turn right at the junction in the road
Turn left at the next junction and then right to head back over the bridge over the River Ure and back into Bainbridge
Turn right and then left back into Bainbridge
Waterfall before Bainbridge
Bainbridge
The civil parish includes Raydale, and a large area of moorland south of the village. It also includes the hamlets of Worton, and Cubeck east of the village.The Roman name for Bainbridge was Virosidum and the remains of a Roman Fort are located just east of Bainbridge, on the other side of the river, on Brough Hill, where various Roman remains have been found. These have been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Nearby is Cam High Road, which follows the line of a Roman Road.
At the time of the Norman invasion there was no village, and hence no entry in the Domesday Book. The site of the modern town was at that time covered in forest and known as The Forest of Bainbridge, alluding to the bridge crossing both the Bain and Ure at this location. The lands after the Norman invasion were in the hands of Count Alan of Brittany.
Between 1146 and 1170 Conan Earl of Richmond granted the wardship of the forest to the lords of Middleham. It was they who built the manor and village of Bainbridge. Towards the end of the twelfth century a dispute arose between the Abbot of Jervaulx and Ranulph, son of Robert Fitz Randolph, over the building of more houses in the village. Ranulph's argument was that the town existed before he became lord. Ralph Earl of Chester was requested to resolve the matter in 1229. Ranulph stated that "the town of Beyntbrigg belonged to his ancestors by service of keeping the forest, so that they might have abiding there 12 foresters, and that every forester should have there one dwelling-house and 9 acres of land." The lords of Middleham had not held the office of Forester since 1280, when Peter of Savoy, Earl of Richmond, had distributed land in the manor to tenants to hold. The manor was valued at more than a third of the revenue of the earldom at that time.
Bainbridge followed the descent of the manor of Richmond till 1413, when Henry IV granted to Ralph Earl of Westmorland the manor, town and bailiwick of Bainbridge. The Neville family were also lords of Middleham at the time and followed its descent until 1628 when it was granted to the City of London. The City sold it in 1663 to eleven of the principal inhabitants, who held the manor in trust for the freeholders.
The village's only pub, the Rose and Crown, is reputed to be one of Yorkshire's oldest having been in operation since 1445.
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