The Dales Way. Terry Marsh

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      Stepping stones across the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey

      The path stays with the river for a while before climbing into the wooded slopes above to a children’s adventure play area, then to follow a route through stands of beech, oak, holly and sycamore. Keep an eye open for a ‘money’ tree – a fallen tree into which people have hammered coins. They have no mystique or legendary significance, so far as I can tell.

      The ongoing path undulates and finally emerges briefly onto Storiths Lane. Turn left and cross Pickles Beck by ford or footbridge, and immediately go left on a path heading back towards the river, to another path going right through a gate and onto a broad path leading to the Wooden Bridge at Cavendish Pavilion. Cross the bridge (though there is a perfectly acceptable alternative route following, and then climbing above, the true left bank of the Wharfe, meeting up with the original line at the aqueduct just south of Barden Bridge).

      The coming of the railway in 1888 and the motor car in the early 20th century placed new demands on the Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Bridge, so the Cavendish Pavilion was built by the riverside to provide refreshments, and is now a popular place for visitors of all ages.

      Tea and snacks are available throughout the year from 10am (www.cavendishpavilion.co.uk), and with so much attractive scenery, pleasant circular walks, nature trails and an abundance of nearby parking, it is inevitably a honeypot that on fine weekends swarms with visitors quite like nowhere else along the way until you reach Bowness. A small shop here sells a variety of maps, booklets, sweets etc, and used to levy a small toll for entering the woods, which are private, and its pathways permissive only.

      Turn right on crossing the bridge, heading to the gated entrance to Strid Wood. As you enter Strid Wood, follow the broad track ahead and basically keep going. There are several colour-coded trails (originally laid out in the 19th century by the vicar of Bolton), but continue following this trail, ignoring deviations left and right, until you reach an information board close to the Strid Gorge, where the river has taken on a new lease of life. A short diversion is necessary to inspect the Strid proper, but take care as the rocks are very slippery.

      STRID WOOD

      You don’t have to be a trained naturalist to recognise immediately that Strid Wood is somewhere quite special, and almost certainly unique. It will be a rare occasion if you have the woods to yourself, for their heavily laden beauty and powerful natural qualities draw people from far and near to potter about among moss-covered grottoes, banks of fern, trees, rock formations and cascading water. Strid Wood is magnificent at all times of the year, but exceptional in spring and autumn, the one when the many wild flowers that colonise this narrow sanctum are bursting through; the other when the burnished bronze colours are at their most intense.

      In the 16th century, the forests of Skipton and Knaresborough met here at the River Wharfe, and it used to be said that a squirrel could travel all the way between the two towns without touching the ground. Strid Wood’s position in a deep gorge made it unsuitable as farmland, and so protected it from the tree clearances that occurred on the surrounding land.