Quadrat

My mission for the afternoon was to try to fill a hole in the Yorkshire butterfly atlas (extra)  - a quadrat (2km x 2km square)  where there were no butterfly records  at all.  This was not an official mission; just something for my own satisfaction of filling a hole in the map :)

It seemed accessible, just a few miles south west of Skipton, but the lack of records conveys that it is seldom walked. There are public rights of way on the map but that doesn’t always match the reality on the ground. And indeed that it what I found - there was usually a public footpath sign at the point a path leaves a road, but thereafter I was on my own. “Bull in field” signs, blocked stiles and a complete absence of waymarker signs all left me quite anxious, and I think that’s the intention - landowners know how to create a hostile environment for walkers. While I had enough confidence in my orienteering skills to pick my way through it still takes quite an act of will for me to stride across the front lawn of a converted farmhouse (which I’ve later learned is now a detox clinic!) without any reassuring signs on the ground.

Peak anxiety arrived when I found myself unwittingly in the middle of the course build for this weekend’s Yorkshire Tough Mudder event (extra). After no signs at all I was suddenly in a bizarre network of directional signs and marked routes, but none bore any relation to the rights of way and there was the added hazard of people on quad bikes zipping around churning up the routes so they were sufficiently muddy for the competitors. Having lost touch with my path on the ground I picked my way through as best as I could until I could reach a landmark that I knew was on my route. 

By this point I was actually in my target quadrat, so I was simultaneously looking out for and recording butterflies. In fact there was some really good rough pasture, marshy habitat, but with all the activity around I didn’t feel I could linger for a proper survey. I did see Meadow Brown, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Ringlet, Large White, Green-veined White and Small Skipper as I was walking through though, so there was some value in my visit.

Eventually I reached a right of way which was a metalled track which I was able to follow back out to the road. I discovered I’d been in the grounds of Broughton Hall Estate and Land Rover Experience North Yorkshire.

On reaching the road I’d had enough of the uncertainties of cross country walking, so just headed a mile down the road to Carleton-in-Craven, whose mill supplies today’s main image (closer in extras). Apparently Carleton is the most northerly village in the South Pennines. The mill has been converted to apartments and the village seemed to undergone a thorough rural gentrification. From there it was a mile back across the fields to Skipton, largely following a route I’d taken on the way out so without the anxiety :)

I had some tea in Skipton, and then I had one more stop on my way back home, a Friday evening fixture at Silsden FC which marked the first competitive game of the season. Bradford’s Albion Sports were the visitors, and it was they that secured a 2-1 victory in front of an impressive crowd of more than 500. 

My final challenge of the day arrived with the cancellation of my 10pm train but at least that gave me a chance to read another story in the collection that I’ve selected for this month’s   Love Blippin’ Books reading challenge, Ursula Le Guin’s Changing Planes. Appropriately the book is based around the idea of being able to explore alternate planes while stuck in airport departure lounges. And a book is itself a form of alternate plane in that being immersed in it is like being in another place.  

I finally made it home at 11.30. Does this count as a relaxing leave day :) ?