Orton to Appleby – 17 September 2022
We are nearly, but not quite into Orton for the start of these walks on Saturday. Two of the routes are about 1.5-miles away and the other route is about 3/4 of a mile away. At least the coach will have to go there to turn around and make the journey back to Appleby. The last time we walked from Orton to Appleby was in September 2015 although we did do it the other way round from Appleby, or Appleby in Westmoreland to give it its proper name. in May 2019.
If you check the map below you will see that we are walking in an area of Cumbria bounded by the A66 to the north and the M6 to the south. On a clear day, all of the routes should be able to see the Lake District hills to the southwest, the Howgills to the south, and the Pennines off to the northeast. What does not show on the map is that this small area of Cumbria is covered in a layer of limestone paving. It runs in a southeast to northwest direction and is known as the Great Ashby Scar National Nature Reserve. There is one more thing about this Nature Reserve, no one seems to know about it so you can walk right across it without seeing anyone else between Orton and Appleby.
There are two routes getting off the coach first, the 10.5-mile and the 11-mile routes. Both of these routes head onto Beacon Hill and pass the monument to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year in 1887. From the monument, the 10.5-mile route goes directly north toward Gaythorne Hall and then northeast to Drybeck before walking along the Dales High Way into Appleby. The 11-mile route goes slightly south before heading northeast towards the village of Great Ashby and then on to Great Ormside before walking alongside the River Eden into Appleby.
The 10-mile route is the last off the coach and the closest to Orton before it starts north passing on the way Robin Hood’s Grave, another one, before reaching the village of Crosby Ravensworth and further along the village of Maulds Meaburn. A strange name for a village but when you look at its history you can understand why it has this name. The land around the village was one of the properties of Hugh de Morville, who took a leading part in the murder of Thomas à Becket. As part of his penance for this crime, which may have been sanctioned by the king, he forfeited some of his lands, and as a result, the northern part of the manor reverted to the Crown, and the village there is known as King’s Meaburn, the remainder was granted to Hugh’s sister, Maud.
If you are thinking that you would love to walk any of these routes, remember on this trip you can only pick one. But if you would like to do any of them 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 during on one of the routes from Orton to Appleby in September 2015.
