Harewood, Stank, Bardsey, and East Keswick

On Saturdays I can use my travel pass early in the morning in areas beyond South Yorkshire and so I made an early start for Leeds today, from where I caught the number 36 bus for Harrogate and got off at Harewood, arriving before nine o'clock. I walked the hundred yards or so down to the main entrance to Harewood House and took some photographs of the impressive gatehouse and the lodges.

I then walked to the northern end of the village and went down Church Lane, which leads into the Harewood estate. After about half a mile, well hidden away, there's a church; not the parish church as I thought but most likely a private church for the personal use of the family which lives in Harewood House - their is no public access to the churchyard...the gate was padlocked.

It's tarmac or concrete for about a mile using the estate road, which is also a bridleway and part of the Ebor Way long distance footpath. Following the Ebor Way took me to the south just before I reached the estate village of Stank.

[I spotted the herd of deer in the distance.]

I really like the erosion patterns in the sandstone blocks surrounding this doorway.

I only managed to get a couple of glimpses of the big house in the distance, both times were when I was looking behind me, so there might have been better viewing opportunities that I missed - this was my best effort at taking a photograph though.

At some point when I was walking through the Harewood estate my route became part of the Leeds Country Way; I continued to follow this signposted route all the way to Bardsey. The approach to Bardsey is lovely, going along a sheltered, winding valley.

When I first saw photographs of the church a Bardsey online I thought it was fairly new, maybe built in the eighteenth century. After a bit of research I found out that it's actually very old - the tower and the nave are Saxon, dating from the ninth and tenth centuries and so I decided to include a visit during my walk. I imagine that all Saxon churches are simple hall churches, but this one looks nothing like that - I don't find it particularly attractive by the way...in fact I think it's rather ugly. I was able to go inside; there's a lot of information about the history and architecture of the building.

I turned north, and left the village, heading for East Keswick...there's no church there for me to like or dislike.

I couldn't walk northwards any further when I reached the southern bank of the River Wharf which I followed upstream for a couple of miles before climbing back up to Harewood. 

There are buses going back to Leeds ever ten minutes, so I didn't have long to wait at all...less than a minute.

The area I walked in today turned out go be a lot more varied and interesting that I'd been expecting by just looking at the map; if it wasn't for the possibility of having a look at Harewood House I wouldn't have bothered, but I'm glad I did.


Today's route...9 miles: