The Dales Way - Burneside to Bowness-on-Windermere

The last day of The Dales Way and it was cool and cloudy at breakfast time which we arranged for the earlier time of 08:00 as we had to be at Bowness-on-Windermere by 16:00 for our lift back to Ilkley.
Retracing our steps to return to the Dales Way after buying sandwiches at a supermarket on the way, we were walking along the bank of the River Kent in pastures.
Soon we were at the smaller, neighbouring village of Bowston and crossing Bowston Bridge to meet the road from Burneside. Which we followed for a short way before following a jitty between houses and passing a nice housing complex next to the river, which used to be a mill.
Again walking next to the river through fields and wooded areas, we skirted past the village of Staveley. Not far after this we crossed a bridge spanning the A591 then leaving rivers behind, we were on open country and following a minor road from New Hall Farm stopping for a quick rest near the road's highest point on a convenient flat grassy area at the side of the road with views across to some of the Lakeland Fells.
After the quick rest we were on our way again following the minor road as far as a Bridleway which we followed to the left until that came to an end and the way continued in a large field via a gate.
The path continued on open ground with lovely views passing a flowing spring whose water sunk underground again after a few feet leading us past some National Park Rangers mending a farm gate next to the farm at Crag House.
Passing the gate we followed a green track to reach a minor road near the curiously-named house “Outrun Nook” and the along the road for a short distance to reach a farm track leading to the farm at Hag End. The Dales Way wends its way between the farm buildings and the owners have taken advantage of passing walkers to set up a tea shop where we stopped to have a snack, especially as we were making good time.

After our snack we continued on our way with more views on the Lakeland Fells opening ahead with a track leading us on. We reached a junction with another track coming in sharply from the left with a signpost at the junction of the two tracks. There was a “Dales Way” disc attached to the post so that it would be seen by someone coming in the opposite direction so it appeared that we should continue straight on, which is what we did. This brought us to a gate at a bend in a metalled track with “Public Footpath” signs pointing back the way we had come nut no mention of the Dales Way. Well I suppose it was obvious to just continue onwards, which is what we did until we arrived on collection of roads in a residential area. Something was wrong!
Checking the compass I realised we were heading North when we should have been heading South! Checking the map, we realised where we had gone wrong – it was at that path junction with the last “Dales Way” marker about 2/3 of a mile back. So far on the Dales Way we had hardly gone wrong at all and now on the last day we made a mistake in navigation.

So, turning around and heading back to the junction, we could see the place where a Dales Way marker had been probably showing that we should have turned left instead of continuing straight on. Now on the correct route, we saw more Dales Way markers which confirmed our suspicions.
Now there was only a short distance to go and following grassy tracks and crossing farm tracks we arrived at the large stone seat similar to the one back at the start of the Dales Way in Ilkley which said “For Those Who Walk the Dales Way” with views down and across the town of Bowness and parts of Lake Windermere. It was 14:20.

After balancing our cameras on rucksacks and taking photos of ourselves sitting on the seat, we dropped down the slope to reach a road between houses leading down into the town centre. By now the sun was out and it was again getting hot and there were throngs of tourists so the first job was to find an ice cream followed by the walk up the road to Windermere and a lift by the “Sherpa Van” people back to Karen's car in Ilkley and home.