The Yorkshire Trap

Staying at Lowstern on a club meet, today was about ticking a couple of Nuttalls in the Yorkshire Dales.  Firstly I drove to above Dent station and parked up.  Starting the walk by heading south on the Pennine Bridleway, after about half a mile I turned left to follow the fence uphill.  Fairly easy walking, passing some cairns to the right, led directly to the trig point of Great Knoutberry Hill.  Like many a Pennine trig point, this one was surrounded by a pool of water and only a couple of strategically placed fenceposts prevented a few feet of paddling.

Great Knoutberry Hill summit

On these hills, map and compass work is not always needed as fences and drystone walls can be used to show the way.  I walked to the eastern edge of Widdale Great Tarn and followed a wall across some boggy ground to Widdale Fell East Top.  Not wanting to return over the same bog I crossed to the other side of the wall in the hope of some better ground.  At a small stream I came across a short length of telegraph pole crossing the stream with a Rail type animal trap attached to it.  The pole was obviously placed there to give wildlife easy access across the stream but the trap in the wire cage was the reward!  Probably meant to catch stoats or weasels to protect the grouse on the moor, the trap was set.  Killing wildlife to protect birds that themselves are bred to be killed by driven shooting is not something that I agree with so, concerned that the trap may be illegal, I took photos so I could send them to the local police.

the Rail trap

Continuing over the hags marking the summit of Widdale Fell, I followed the wall to Widdale Little Tarn.  Losing some height brought the tarn into view and I saw that a stone shooting butt had been built in the middle of the tarn, with a narrow stone causeway leading to it from the far side.  The grass-topped butt isn't marked on the map and after taking some photos I headed almost exactly west to the car.

Widdale Little Tarn

Widdale Little Tarn's shooting butt

The second walk of the day started from Cam High Road, a Roman road above Hawes.  A mile of easy walking along the track ended at a gate, from where I headed uphill towards the top of Drumaldrace.  It was a simple tick followed by a leisurely walk back to the car and an exploratory drive across the Dales back to Clapham.

Drumaldrace summit

When I returned home I sent an email to Cumbria police about the trap on Widdale fell and received a reply saying that there was no reason to suspect that the trap was illegal.