Bolton Priory

We went for a walk today as Paul the Weatherman forecast it would be the best day of the half term week. We took a new route for us, parked up at Bolton Abbey carpark (not sure why the area is called Bolton Abbey, but the ruin at its centre is actually a Priory?) then headed upwards through Westy Bank Wood and across fields and moorland to Middle Hare Head and onward to Lower Barden Reservoir - which is where the sun finally came out Paul!

From the reservoir we walked down to Barden Towers in expectation of a bowl of soup and cup of tea (they used to do home made Walkers' Soup and Drivers' Soup in large and smaller bowls) only to find NO SOUP and no cafe!?? We had to make do with a finger of twirl and a packet of crisps as we followed the River Wharfe down past the Strid and back to Bolton Abbey. We stopped for belated refreshments at the Cavendish Pavilion which was HEAVING with people (we'd only seen two others all the way to Barden Towers.) Bumped into Richard, a colleague from work, with his daughter who went off to fly their kite.

After lunch we continued our walk along the river to the ruined Priory and back to our car.

The family are in some dispute as to which blip to upload. Becks favoured the sheep, I wanted to go for the full Yorkshire (farm, drystone walls, heather moorland, river etc) but Tony won out with this interior view of the priory. If you want to see the other choices and vote for your favourite, see here!