Lion Inn to Hutton-le-Hole – 2 April 2022
Here’s one of those places where you think you could be the only ones around and then all at once you see a crowd. What are you and the crowd looking for? Well in case you haven’t guessed its daffodils, not your common garden variety though, these are Farndale daffodils, the smaller wild daffodil which is one of this country’s native plants. The daffodil walk normally starts at Low Mill and heads north to Church Houses, its length is about 3.5-miles (5.6km) and it runs alongside the River Dove. Depending on the weather the daffodils are usually out between mid-March and mid-April.
Because we will be coming into Farndale from the north all our walks will go the opposite way to the official route. All the routes will go along the 3.5-mile section of the daffodil walk. Two of the routes, the 12-mile route and the 10.5-mile route are getting off at the Lion Inn pub on Blakey Ridge road. The 9-mile route gets off the coach about another mile south of the pub.
The 12.5-mile route loops around to the north on the old railway line path on High Blakey Moor before coming into Farndale from the west. After reaching Low Mill this route keeps in the valley following the River Dove until Lowna Bridge where it heads along the road into Hutton-le-Hole.
The 10.5-mile route drops straight into the valley from the Lion Inn and after reaching Low Mill climbs up to Rudland Rigg on the west side of the valley before descending near the village of Gillamoor. The route then heads east on a footpath into Hutton-le-Hole.
The 9-mile route also drops into the Farndale valley and after reaching Low Mill climbs along the bottom edge of Rudland Rigg before dropping into the valley once more and following the River Dove until the route connects with the road leading to Gillamoor. This route then follows the footpath east to Hutton-le-Hole.
We have walked these routes five times over the years, three times we have walked in April but only once on 9 April 2011 did we see the largest amount of daffodils along the river. On one occasion there were more daffodils in the church at Church Houses than anywhere else. It has been estimated that up to 40,000 people visit Farndale in the daffodil season. Hopefully, not a lot of them will be there on the 2 April otherwise all at once you will see a crowd.
If you would like a walk along the River Dove to see the daffodils, hopefully, you can get in touch with us using the Contact Page of our website and you can also download the walk descriptions below and the GPX routes here.
The image for this post was taken on 9 April 2011 during our perfect daffodil walk.
