Set in the southeast of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, Bolton Abbey Estate is a popular day out for
people of all ages. In this video we're going to take you on a 7 mile circular trail around Bolton
Abbey. We will show you some of the things that you could see on your trip such as the priory ruins,
the peaceful nature trails and the ferocious strid, which some say is one of the most
dangerous stretches of river in the world. While I don't know how accurate this claim
is there is no denying that you should be careful around the impressive strid.
We're starting off here at the Bolton Abbey car park
and we're going to head down towards the priory.
We're starting the day heading off over there to the priory which you can see off in the distance.
These are the ruins of a 12th century Augustinian monastery.
You can go inside so we're going to go take a wander around and get a closer look.
After being gifted the land in 1154 the Augustinian canons lived and worshiped here until
the priory was closed in the 1539 dissolution of the monasteries, as ordered by Henry VIII.
in this time the canons not only lived as monks but they were ordained as priests and became
really involved in local community life. Bolton priory's fate was similar to that of so many
others being stripped of its commercial assets to fund the crown and Henry VIII's conquests.
Even the lead from the roof was sold. However as the canons had pastoral responsibilities
in the surrounding community and it was the only church in the area they were able to
negotiate with Cromwell to preserve the nave and the church still thrives today.
Next we're heading down here to cross the River Wharfe.
There are 60 stones, supposedly I read that I've not actually counted them,
and they used to be used by the workers at the priory to cross the River Wharfe.
However i think today given the river is quite fast and some of those rocks are looking like
they've fallen over a fair bit we're gonna follow those people and take the bridge.
When you google Bolton Abbey this spot is where you'll see a lot of photos taken from so you'll
have the stepping stones in the foreground and the beautiful priory in the background.
You can see just over here to the left there's quite a large nice beach area.
I've just spotted some fake stepping stones over here. Throughout the year different events and
activities are held at Bolton Abbey. On our most recent visit it was the Welly Walk which runs
from May until the end of October. This trail is a fun activity for families with children
and involves tackling different obstacles such as stepping stones, nets, beams, ropes and tunnels.
Bluebells! If you visit in the spring or summer then you can enjoy all the beautiful flowers
that carpet the grounds of Bolton Abbey. We're continuing to follow the River Wharfe keeping it on
our left. We're just looking for Cavendish Bridge which will take us back over to the other side.
Look down here on the left is just a sea of wild garlic!
We're coming up to the bridge now, so we're going to cross over to Cavendish Pavilion over there.
The pavilion's a good place to stop for a cup of coffee or a freshly made sandwich or a cake.
There's also some loo's and a small shop over here as well.
Next we're heading this way through Strid Wood leaving the pavilion behind us to go on to our
next stop. When you first come into the woods there's a sign here for the nature trails.
So we're here just where the pavilion was and next we're heading all the way along to
here to see The Strid. You have several different options for trails around the estate.
There are different distances, difficulties and terrains available so I would suggest visiting
the Bolton Abbey website before your trip to see which walk you would like to do. I will link to the
relevant pages in the description below this video. The Strid Wood nature trails are colour-coded so
if you choose one of these as part of your visit then take note of the colour of your trail because
there will be arrows around for you to follow. The beautiful Strid Wood consists mainly of oak trees.
Foresters at Bolton Abbey gather the acorns off the floor and send them off to a nursery
where they are grown and then returned as saplings to be planted in woodland areas around the estate.
These woods are so green and lush almost makes all of that rain we've had this month worth it...almost!
Next we're about to come to the Strid. The powerful water crashing and
swirling through the rocks is an incredible sight. However The Strid is actually very dangerous.
The reason it's so dangerous is because the river is pushed through a narrow gap and as you can see
it's really fast flowing and strong, and there are undercurrents, and the two sides of rock are both
undercut so if you do get sucked under you're probably not gonna be able to get back out again.
The waters of The Strid are so deep that there is actually a network of caves hidden
below the surface. So while The Strid is well worth seeing on your trip to Bolton
Abbey be very careful, especially after rain as the surrounding rocks can get slippery.
We've left The Strid and now we're following the trail to Barden Bridge where we'll cross the
river and head back in the other direction. We can hear a woodpecker somewhere but we can't see him.
We've seen so many really interesting birds on this walk but they've all been
too fast for our camera unfortunately! Oh you can smell all the wild garlic... oh hello!
Now we've reached the aqueduct which carries water from Nidderdale to cities in West Yorkshire.
You can cross here and go to the side if you want to make your walk shorter but we're going
to keep going. The section of the trail from the aqueduct to Barden Bridge takes around 15 minutes.
We've reached Barden Bridge so we're going to cross over to the other side just over there
and follow the route back to the priory.
The route takes you back through rolling countryside and lush green woodland
with the River Wharfe running below you.
The distance from Barden Bridge to Bolton Priory is around three and a half miles, however there
is a short detour to another point of interest on the way back which we will take you to now.
Just after crossing that bridge we've come to this sign here and it says route to Simon's
Seat via Valley of Desolation. We probably haven't got time to go to Simon's Seat but
we want to go see if Valley of Desolation is as grim as it sounds. Spoilers - it's not.
hey bunny! Oh that's a good waterfall.
After spending some time admiring the waterfall we realised we were cutting it
a bit fine to get back to the car park before it closed so we hotfooted it back to the car.
Speaking of car park at the time of filming this video you must now pre-book your ticket.
T price which includes both admission and parking is 10 pounds per vehicle,
not per person, and you select the car park you wish to use in advance. We parked at Bolton
Abbey village but there are a few other options available at different locations around the estate.
We have other videos from days out in Yorkshire that you might want to watch next so I will link
a couple of playlists here that you could be interested in. We also have a catalogue
of other travel videos from the UK and around the world which we'll be building up over time
so pop over to our channel if you would like to see what else we have. Thanks for watching.