Skipton and Stirton

The first settlers arrived in the 7th century when a group of Anglian sheep farmers settled on the banks of Eller Beck (recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sceapton, meaning 'sheep town'). As wool industry labour needs grew, population surged, and the area behind the High Street leading down from the castle was filled with housing around narrow yards (some three-storey with top storeys used as weaving lofts). Many survive and have been modernised, approached from the High Street via narrow alleyways known as 'ginnels'.

As the High Street merges with the cobbles of Sheep Street, you pass a block of buildings dividing the main street where the old Town Hall stood (cellars used as a criminal lock-up). From Sheep Street you turn right to join the towpath of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Isaac Dewhurst built the 19th-century Belle Vue Mill on the canal bank (originally worsted goods, later cotton and 'Sylko' sewing threads until closing in 1983), and the Dewhurst family gave Skipton its main recreation area, Aireville Park, through which the walk continues.

After a short walk along the Skipton-to-Kendal road, a quiet lane leads to the attractive village of Stirton, featuring an old tithe barn and the remains of double stocks on the roadside verge. The lane leading back towards Skipton is a historic drovers' road alongside 400-year-old hedgerows.

Beyond the Pinfold (where stray horses and cattle were once impounded) you come to Mill Bridge spanning Eller Beck and Springs Canal (a spur used to transport quarry stone). Next you pass through the churchyard of the 12th-century parish church, emerging by the barbican gatehouse of Skipton Castle.

Recognising its strategic importance to dominate the Aire Gap (a natural division between north and south Pennines), Norman baron Robert de Romille built the first castle on a rock above the Eller Beck gorge in the 11th century. Additions were made in the 13th and 14th centuries; damaged during the Civil War and ordered destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, the resolute owner Lady Anne Clifford famously vowed to rebuild it just as fast if pulled down, fully restoring both the castle and Holy Trinity Church next door (while in WWII, it provided safe storage for British Museum historical documents).

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.