Bridge projects aid trail walkers

The Six Dales Trail, which runs for 38 miles from Otley on the banks of the Wharfe to Middleham in Wensleydale, opened in June.

It crosses the five watersheds that separate the six dales which give the trail its name. From Wharfedale it crosses into Washburndale, then into Nidderdale, Colsterdale, Coverdale, and finally Wensleydale.

Along its route, the trail crosses the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and passes through scenery including quiet steep pastures, high heather moorland, eighteenth century parkland, and alongside fast flowing rivers.

But at two points, walkers would have difficulty keeping to the trail without the provision of new bridges by North Yorkshire County Council's Countryside and Public Rights of Way teams.

The council's contractors, directed by its bridges department, have built a footbridge at Padside Beck, near Blubberhouses, and the Arthur Adamson Memorial Bridge near Swinsty Reservoir, between Otley and Fewston.