The Station, Richmond, DL10 4LD | 7:30pm | £10 | café, bookstall, disabled access

When Nic Wilson begins researching her local landscape, the last thing she wants to do is consider her own past. But as she unearths tales of giant sequoias, nightingales and chalk streams, Nic realises her affinity with nature began as a way to handle growing up with a mother who lived with debilitating illness.

Now in her forties, and facing mental and physical health challenges herself, Nic revisits her childhood to trace the influence of the natural world on her life. Can she find the strength to face the waves of chronic illness and learn how to reach for steady ground?

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Start at gateway to Gainford St Mary’s Church DL2 3DS (GR: NZ 170 167, What3Words: ///cleans.clashing.contexts) at 9.30am. 16 Miles. Hard. £7. This is a linear walk involving the use of public transport. Please see details of the proposed arrangements below. All participants will be contacted in advance to finalise appropriate travel options.

The Northern Saints Trails are a series of 6 routes converging on Durham Cathedral, and over 2 days we will follow the southerly route called “The Way of Life”,which runs from the church in the lovely spa village of Gainford north to Durham. It is said that the route corresponds to the last part of the journey of the body of St Cuthbert from Ripon to his final shrine in Durham. The same route forms part of the official Camino Ingles Pilgrimage. The two stages can be done separately or together. Our first day takes us through varied countryside, past Headlam and Ingleton to West Auckland, famous as the home of the first Football World Cup!  From here we start to see evidence of the railway history of the area as we walk along the Etherley Incline which formed part of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway. The area roundabout was an important centre for coal mining and iron works. We will reach Escomb, with its small Saxon Church, before following the Weardale Way to Bishop Auckland, where we take our chosen arrangements to get transport home. Those doing both legs may wish to arrange accommodation in Bishop Auckland overnight. Although this is relatively straightforward walking, the length of the route justifies the grading of hard and means we will need to maintain a good pace throughout.

RECOMMENDED TRANSPORT ARRANGEMENTS

It is considered that the most appropriate transport arrangements are based on those taking part making their way to Darlington at the start of the day. Assuming you will do that by car the best parking place is the Park Place West Car Park (DL1 1AA). Park at the western end of this nearest to Victoria Road.  From here it is an easy walk, allow 15 minutes to be safe, to the bus stop at Darlington Town Hall. Catch the X76 bus to Barnard Castle leaving at 9.03am. Alight at the Gainford Lord Nelson stop and walk to Gainford Green and the Church.  At the end of the day we will make our way to Bishop Auckland Railway Station and catch the train back to Darlington.  It is a short walk from the station in Darlington back to your car. The train runs hourly, and which we catch will depend on the pace we achieve on our walk. Remember to bring your railcard if you have one.

It is recognised that other options might prove more suitable to some, Your leader will contact you before the walk to confirm arrangements with you.

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Leave Station car park 9.00am. Start at Buckden YDNP car park (GR: SD 941 774, What3Words: ///behalf.makeup.freely) at 10.00am. 5.5 miles. Hard. £7

Join Yorkshire Dales National Trust Rangers and Ecologist for a circular walk on Buckden Pike (2,303’). As always, the National Trust walk will be used to illustrate and discuss various aspects of the Trust’s conservation work in the Dales. The route will sometimes deviate off established paths to include areas of woodland creation, montane scrub planting, and peat bog restoration. Although short in distance terms this will be a strenuous walk. We head up the Rakes and the summit of Buckden Pike, along to the Polish Memorial, and then down to Eshber Wood to pick up the Millennium Path back to Buckden. Please bring lunch, these walks always take longer than expected as the objective is not to cover distance quickly!  

Supported by: The National Trust   

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Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start at Mocha Café Car Park at Aske Hall DL10 5HQ (GR: NZ 178 037), What3Words: ///fidgeting,bypassed,solutions) at 10.00am. 8 miles. Moderate. £7

An undulating walk, all on good paths, with fine views and a variety of landscapes and historic features. We walk past the impressive Aske Hall, for a steady climb over Richmond Golf Course to reach the historic former racecourse. Our gentle climb continues to the viewpoint of Jockey Cap Hill. We then descend through woodland to return to the valley, passing Gillingwood Hall, and back to our start where there should be time to sample the coffee or chocolate at Mocha.

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Cosy Stove Café, Scorton Road, Brompton on Swale, DL10 7EQ | 11:00am | £10 

Join naturalist and writer, Laurence Rose, for a talk celebrating ‘the extraordinary nature of ordinary nature’. Set in the Yorkshire countryside, his latest book Windhover does just that. Later, during a leisurely 3 - 4 mile flat walk around Scorton Lakes Nature Reserve Laurence will share his love and knowledge of the natural world, including readings from his books and literary field notes. This is an opportunity to experience nature through the eyes of a writer: for some it may be a whole new way of engaging with landscape, wildlife and ‘place’. Feel free to bring a notebook of your own writing if you would like to do so - Laurence is always happy to exchange ideas and challenges along the way.

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The Station, Richmond, DL10 4LD | 2:00pm | £60 | café, bookstall, disabled access

Learn the art of bookbinding in this hands-on 3-hour workshop. Have you ever wondered how fine and antiquarian books were made? The art and craft of book making dates back over two thousand years, but whether that’s works from ancient China, Japanese designs, the rich tradition of Islamic bookbinding, or the leather-bound volumes of stately-home libraries, the principles are similar: papers are sewn together and secured within a protective, often decorated, casing.  In this workshop led by local bookbinder, Delphine Ruston, see for yourself how books start life by making two books of your own to take away – a 3-hole pamphlet (or chap book), and a single-section, hardback notebook. With a few materials, tools and simple skills, it’s possible to make attractive books to put to whatever use you wish.

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Richmondshire Cricket Club, Hurgill Road, DL10 4AR | 7:30pm | £12 | bookstall | disabled access

A collection of selected poetry and prose celebrating The Shipping Forecast on the 100th anniversary of the first BBC broadcast.

Described variously as a litany, a mantra or a lullaby, the Shipping Forecast details wind, rain, pressure and visibility in the seas bordering the British Isles. Its thirty-one areas – cast like a safety net – take us on a virtual voyage that starts between the Shetlands and Norway, zig-zags down the North Sea, scoots westwards along the English Channel, down the coast of France, Spain and Portugal, and then via both sides of Ireland up to the west coast of Scotland and the nearest shard of Iceland.  The forecast is delivered using precise vocabulary and with all the expressive qualities of a metronome and yet, the nation loves it.  Good, Occasionally Rhyming is a love letter to this iconic radio broadcast.

Kathy Clugston is the current chairman and voice of Gardeners’ Question Time. As a BBC announcer she read the shipping forecast for many years. She has written a humorous word-play book, A Brief History of Tim, and co-created a stage musical about Radio 4, But First This.  

Rob Stepney writes about travel, science, medicine, and The Archers as well as being a published poet.

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Start in front of Auckland Tower (GR: NZ 213 301, What3Words: ///starts.taken.sorry) at 9.30am. 15 Miles. Moderate. £7. This is a linear walk involving the use of public transport. Please see the details below of the recommended arrangements. All participants will be contacted in advance to finalise appropriate travel options.

See W10 for further background. Day 2 of our walk starts at Auckland Tower near the gateway to Auckland Castle, former home to the Bishops of Durham and now the centrepiece of the Auckland Project. Sadly, we will not have time to linger but will make our way through the Deer Park and onto the railway path towards Byers Green. Passing through Whitworth, the former home of “Bonny Bobby Shafto” of the famous song, we pass through Tudhoe Village to Sunderland Bridge. From here we are on the final leg towards our goal of reaching Durham Cathedral. We will get a wonderful view of this from the aptly named Mount Joy before we descend into the City and make our way to the Cathedral. Although this is relatively straightforward walking, mainly on wooded tracks and paths, the length of the route justifies the grading of hard and means we will need to maintain a good pace throughout.

RECOMMENDED TRANSPORT ARRANGEMENTS

It is considered that the most appropriate transport arrangements are based on those taking part making their way to Bishop Auckland by car at the start of the day. Free long stay parking is available near the start at The Batts Car Park (DL14 7QE) at the foot of Wear Chare.  It is a short albeit steep walk uphill to the start at Auckland Tower.  Please allow around 10 minutes from the car park to the starting point.  At the end of the day we will make our way from Durham Cathedral to the bus station where there are 4 buses an hour back to Bishop Auckland.  We can alight in the square near Auckland Tower to return to our cars. If you have one please remember to bring your bus pass.

It is recognised that other options might prove more suitable to some, Your leader will contact you before the walk to confirm arrangements with you.

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Leave Station car park 9.00am. Start at Bowlees Visitor Centre CP (GR: NY 908 283, What3Words: ///good.dockers.wake) at 10.00am. 9 Miles. Moderate. £7

We walk from the Visitor Centre down to the Tees at Low Force Waterfall, crossing over at the famous Wynch Bridge, and follow a delightful path along the riverbank to High Force, impressive at any time and particularly after rain. Continuing along the Pennine Way we recross the Tees and head towards Langdon Beck before heading back east on field tracks and paths to Bowlees. This area is rich in geology, and in particular the Whin Sill which crosses the landscape here, and the area is dotted with the white painted farmhouses of the Raby Estate. All this promises a varied and exhilarating walk.

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Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start in front of The Fox and Hounds PH in Cotherstone (GR: NZ 010 198, What3Words:///score.rise.baguette) at 10.00am. 6.5 Miles. Moderate. £12 to include the charge for the Garden visit.

The highlight of this walk will be a guided tour of the beautiful, 400-year-old garden at Eggleston Hall [www.egglestonhallgardens.co.uk]. A treat for all gardeners and historians! 

We will leave Cotherstone taking the Teesdale Way, giving splendid views over the Tees, and arrive at Eggleston Hall in time for lunch, which can be enjoyed at the café, and for the garden tour. We will return to Cotherstone at the end of the afternoon via the lovely Tees Railway Path on the south side of the valley. The walk is graded moderate due to a number of stiles, all well-maintained, on the Teesdale Way section, with an easy return section along the old railway path. 

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Meet outside the Town Hall at 12.00 noon. Free but donations to the Richmond Mayor’s Charity most welcome.

Your costumed guide, a Richmond policeman of 1842, takes you for a walk back in time lasting just over one hour.

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Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL| 7:30pm | £10 | refreshments | bookstall | disabled access

Kenneth Wilson is a writer, a cellist, and a dreamer. His latest book – Pilgrim Cello – chronicles his 1,900-mile journey around all forty-two English cathedrals. In every cathedral, except one, Kenneth performed a Meditation on the Seven Last Words of Jesus. It’s a story of stamina and endurance, combining adventure with music and a spiritual response to our historic holy places. Many of you will remember Kenneth from his last musical voyage to Rome, Highway Cello. Now from the great architectural icons of Canterbury and York to the lesser-known gems of Southwell, Derby, and Carlisle, Kenneth weaves an account of a personal response to the religious and historic traditions of this country. Come along and enjoy the ride – and the music!

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at Cross Keys Inn CP on A638 (GR: SD 699 969, What3Words: /// dine.baths.cooked) at 10.15am. 11 Miles, 2,450’ of climbing. Hard. £7.

This is one of the great walks of the Howgills. We start with the challenging steep climb up the vertiginous side of the iconic Cautley Spout falls before making our way to the Calf at 2,218’. We follow The Dales High Way along the ridge over The Calf (2,218’), Bram Rigg Top (2,205’) & Calders (2,211’). A long descent, steep in places, takes us to the fields above Sedbergh. We follow the undulating path along the attractive valley of the River Rawthey back to the Cross Keys

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at the Dales Countryside Museum CP – DL8 3NT (GR: SD 875 899, What3Words: ///lentil.buying.teacher) at 10.00am. 7.5 Miles. Moderate. £7

Please note that some parts of this walk follow paths that feature in the longer Hawes Mosaic Trail walk W5.

A walk and talk led by Catherine Mason from the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. With lovely views of upper Wensleydale throughout, we visit Burtersett and Gayle then follow Widdale Beck downstream to Appersett before crossing the Ure and a gentle ascent to Hardraw, and back to Hawes.  Enjoy spotting beautiful fauna and flora and discovering some interesting river facts along the way, including finding out about the Trust’s Natural Flood Management project work in the area. There will be an optional free tour of the Rivers4Life summer exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum on our return. This is generally a moderate walk, with short stretches of road walking mainly on minor roads, several stiles, some narrow and uneven paths and a few gentle climbs.

Supported by: The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust   

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Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start from the free car park at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon DL4 2RE (What3Words: ///lads.crunchy.hunter) at 10.00am. A special interest day with a linear walk of around 5.5 Miles. Easy. £7

Our walk follows parts of the original route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway from Shildon, where Locomotion No1 set off for Stockton in 1825. Starting at the aptly named railway museum ‘Locomotion’ it traces the route along a recently refreshed track to Brussleton Winding House. Here wagons were pulled up the hill from West Auckland, and then lowered to Shildon, before being steam hauled eastwards. Information boards are sited along the route detailing its history. We descend to join the Roman Dere Street, and a refreshment stop at Broom Mill Farm Cafe. A road walk takes us to a bus service (bring your pass if you have one) back to Shildon and ‘Locomotion’. The museum complex (free admission) may then be explored at leisure.

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Start at Nuns Close CP in Richmond DL10 4UN ( What3Words: ///radiating.craftsman.outlined) at 10am for 10.15am. 3.5 Miles. Easy. Free just turn up on the day.

This walk is part of the Ramblers Wellbeing Walks programme. We will walk along the top of West Field, then down Green Lane to Round Howe. From there we cross the footbridge over the Swale, going along the riverside meadow before turning up through the woods to come out at Green Bridge. We cross the bridge and then go up into Richmond and back to the starting point.

Supported by: Ramblers Wellbeing Walks Richmondshire

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The Station, Richmond, DL10 4LD | 11:00am | £10 | café, bookstall, disabled access

Tony Rossiter is a former diplomat, civil servant and international consultant. His talk will focus on his time as a young diplomat in the late sixties and early seventies. In Moscow during the Cold War, Western diplomats were kept under surveillance and their flats were bugged. In Karachi, during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, bomb blasts shook the walls of Tony’s bungalow before women and children were belatedly evacuated. Transferred to Buenos Aires, he arrived shortly after Perón’s reinstatement as President, when the Montoneros urban guerrillas were stepping up terrorist attacks against Western targets. Tony’s book is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a junior diplomat who had a ringside seat at three critical chapters of twentieth-century history.

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Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL| 7:30pm | £10 | refreshments | bookstall | disabled access

In 2011, a wolf named Slavc set out from Slovenia, travelling through the Alps to Northern Italy, where he crossed paths with a female wolf in a region that had been without wolves for a century. A decade later, more than a hundred wolves are back in the area, the result of their meeting. In Lone Wolf, Weymouth walks Slavc's path, examining changes facing these wild corners of Europe, where re-wilding meets cultural preservation and climate change is reshaping lives.

Adam Weymouth’s work has been published in Granta, The Atlantic, The Observer and the BBC. His first book, Kings of the Yukon, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Lonely Planet/Stanfords Adventure Travel Book of the Year and the Prix Paul Emile-Victoire.

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start Ingleby Cross at the crossroads (GR: NZ 450 006, What3Words: ///flirts.interacts.draining) at 10.00am. 8.5 Miles. Moderate. £7

Our walk starts at Ingleby Cross, where the Coast to Coast Trail leaves the plain of the Vale of York and starts to climb into the North York Moors. Here the trail and the Cleveland Way coincide for a time along the edge of the moor, and we have some great views, both to the north towards Teesside, and south into the Moors.  Our walk takes in the scenic setting of Cod Beck Reservoir and the wooded path around it, and also the interesting Lady Chapel near Osmotherly. This is a varied walk on good paths and tracks, but there are plenty of ups and downs, and an overall 1,300 feet of ascent during the day.

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at The Farmers’ Arms, Muker (GR: SD 909 979, What3Words: ///driver.thrashed.trousers) at 10.00am. Park at the National Park CP (chargeable) at the entrance to the village, or roadside parking beyond the pub. An easy nature walk of around 4.5 Miles. £7

Our walk passes through Ivelet Wood - one of the few remaining areas of ancient woodland in Swaledale, with evidence of sites of charcoal burning platforms and wood kilns dating back to the 16^th century. Rob Macdonald of Sustainable Swaledale will accompany the walk and outline the work of the Group. There will be an opportunity to collect tree seeds, some of which you will be able to plant towards the end of the walk. We will also visit Adelaide Level and the lovely waterfall of Arn Gill, before continuing up the valley for a lunch stop at Swinner Gill. On the return to Muker we shall make the short climb up to the Old Vicarage where walkers will be able to sow some of the seeds collected, see some intermediate saplings from the Group’s tree nursery, and then visit a small area of recent planting.

Supported by: Sustainable Swaledale

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