Bolton Bridge to Skipton via Barden Moor
The Countryside Access Website should be checked before departing for any restrictions which may be in place on the open access land (View Open Access Walking Maps for the Upper North West Area).
Start Skipton Bus Station
Length 8.6 miles / 13.8 km
Facilities Cafés, pubs and toilets in Skipton
Ordnance Survey Map Outdoor Leisure 2 (the walk makes use of open access land)
Map Link
Catch the Harrogate bus from Skipton Bus station, to the first stop at Bolton Bridge (“Harrogate & District – X59” on a weekday or Saturday - see this website for details.)
Head back towards the roundabout on the A59 (where the bus turned off to the Bolton Bridge stop) and take a lane off to the left before your reach this. Just before the bridge, take the stile to your left onto a footpath along the River Wharfe.
Follow the footpath to the field in front of Bolton Abbey. On your left you will see some steps descending from an archway, take these steps up to the road. Turn right onto the road, go through the archway and, opposite Bolton Hall, take the bridleway to your left up the hill.
Follow the bridleway through a wood and up to the top of the hill, eventually reaching the road to Embsay at a cattle grid. Cross the cattle grid and take the track to your right onto Barden Moor.
When the track meets the bridleway, strike off across the moor (open access land) up the hill to your left (Halton Height) and then to the wall by the woodland. This wall marks the boundary of the open access land. Follow this wall until you reach a bridleway close to the distinctive Embsay Crag.
Go through the bridleway gate and continue down the hill to the road. Turn right onto the road and follow it until a footpath goes off to your right, just after the church. Follow the footpath to the car park and then onto the road. Turn right and follow the main road towards Skipton.
Go past Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway and take the footpath on the left which goes through a pub car park and onto a lane. Go under the railway bridge to a woodland and turn right. Where a footpath leaves the wood to your right, stay in the woodland to exit onto the A65 by a quarry.
Carefully cross the A65 and turn left onto a footpath, then right onto a lane to the A6131. Cross this road and walk down the pavement to enter Skipton at the top of the high street.