A look at Hardraw Force

Nearly there, one more blog post to go, and we can say goodbye to the Yorkshire Dales mini tour. It's been fun putting it all together. 

Hardraw Force is England's longest single drop waterfall. It is privately owned and there is an entrance fee to pay. I would say that at £4 it is excellent value. The present owners bought it in 2001, after it had been on the market for five years. It was in a fairly unkempt state, with a collapsed path, a rotten bridge, and scorch marks from wild camping. Their initial investment was £350,000. They do not have charitable status and receive no grants towards it's upkeep. To read more about it click here. 

This man sat there on a rock for ages, reading a book. I thought it was a bit mean of him to put himself in the way of visitors wanting to take photo's of the waterfall. 

Zooming in to the top of the waterfall. 

And again at the bottom.

There are notices up saying walking behind the water is not allowed. Sensible really when you think how wet and slippery those rocks are. 

There are two ways to view it. An easy bottom walk suitable for wheelchairs and buggies, and a much harder steep walk which climbs higher up to the top of it. The views are not so good from the high walk as the trees hide it, but the roar of the water tumbling down adds to the experience. This is the view from the top. It starts as a trickle of water before it plummets to the bottom. 

The high walk is quite pleasant, when you catch your breath after the hard slog up the steps. Lovely bluebells out at the moment. 

I was curious about where all that water was going, and spotted something on the edge of it. Let's have a zoom. 

I always think piles of stones which have been arranged like this are pretty amazing. 

I made a short video of Hardraw Force. 

If anyone wants to do a walk from Hawes to Hardraw, here is a link to the Walks in Yorkshire web site. Very similar to what I did. 

I returned back to the car at Hawes, but wait, the day is not over. Still got time to take a look at Gayle, a village a bit further south on the Pennine Way. 

Catch ya tomorrow with the final installment of the Mini Tour.