Lakes and Dales Horseback Rambler

I have just returned from the annual family hostelling trip in the Lake District. No horses involved this time but leading a group of 17 people aging from 6 through to their 70s it could be classed as quite a feet getting this tribe from place to place in one peace! With the Youth Hostels Association for England and Wales (YHA) sadly being forced this year to sell some of their hostels I though I would outline why these places are cherished by so many and how we do hostelling. In a recent Guardian article John Harris described Youth Hostels as ' muddy, joyful miracles. Losing them to Brexit and the cost of living would be a tragedy ' ( https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/30/youth-hostels-brexit-cost-of-living-sell-off  ).  Before I met my husband I did not really know much about YHA, but when our children and their cousins started to be able to walk a bit of distance around the age of 3/4 years Grandma announced that we should all go You...

  Sometimes crazy ideas work and it helps when the weather gods are on your side. My friends had their annual horse holiday booked at Scales Farm and invited a few of us to join them. When venturing into the Lakes I do try and leave the car behind and with that thought in mind the plan started to come together to ride to our holiday cottage. In the Lakes if your traveling by foot, hoof or wheel it is quicker to use the old packhorse routes through the fells than travel on the valley roads. In the lakes there are over 20 fell or mountain passes, which all have a history of being packhorse or drovers roads and are mostly now classified as bridleways or byways  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hill_passes_of_the_Lake_District ). Starting fr om Longsleddale we rode over Gatescarth Pass to Scales Farm, Helton ( http://www.scalesfarmcottage.co.uk/ ) for three nights and then rode back via High Street. Altogether we rode for five days and covered nearly 50 miles. For this ad...