Garsdale: full of new life

Garsdale was full of people and farming, daffodils and lambs, today.

Sunshine today and shadows in the clefts of the fells. Young people planting trees. Shepherds at work. Muck spreading. Garsdale full of life!

Dun-coloured higher up, green in the valley bottom, its neighbours Wensleydale to the east, Cautley and Lune valleys to the west, Dentdale to the south.   Garsdale and its sister, tributary dale to the north, Grisedale, have open landscapes, with much moorland, and so much Open Access land to roam.

Garsdale’s valley floor is hemmed in by steep sides. Along it runs the road to Sedbergh and beyond to Westmorland (see photo below).  This east-west narrow way frequently crosses from one side of the dale to the other, bridging the River Clough. The Clough rises on the great bulk of Baugh Fell on the north side of the dale, curves around to Garsdale head, and flows fast down dale for eight miles, often beside the road, entering the River Rawthey near Sedbergh.

Garsdale is one of only five of the more than 100 parishes in the National Park that can boast a mainline railway station.    This makes Garsdale one of the most accessible dales in the National Park to visit, if you do not have a car.   Close to the station is the Dandry Mire Viaduct (below), one of the wonders of the National Park.  Underneath it runs the line of the Pennine Bridleway National Trail. 

There can be few better places in the whole country than Garsdale for upland bird watching, especially in late spring.  As soon as you leave Garsdale Station and walk on the land, you will hear the sounds of wading birds all around you:  curlew, lapwing and oystercatcher.  Meadow pipits and skylarks are everywhere, too.     Garsdale is also one of the best places to see red squirrels, with blocks of conifer woodland providing a great food source.  The dale is regarded as one of three red squirrel refuge areas in the National Park, along with Widdale/Snaizeholme and Upper Wharfedale.   Garsdale is rich botanically; on the road verges, for example, rare plants such as melancholy thistle bloom in summer.

Garsdale is a parish of 4,476 hectares, making up 2.1% of the area Yorkshire Dales National Park.  It is most definitely a Yorkshire parish, being for most of its recorded history part of the northernmost reaches of the great county of the West Riding of Yorkshire.   Today it is administered from Westmorland and, technically at least, is in the ceremonial county of Cumbria.

Discover Garsdale. One of the best places to access the Yorkshire Dales National Park without a car.