Trolls, Demon Dogs and Magic.

Trollers Gill near Appletreewick is a magical place with many myths surrounding the it. Upon visiting there is a magical atmosphere and a place the kids and adults will love exploring. Care must be taken around any mine shafts, caves and open water.!

One of the folklore tales is the one of a Demon Dog named a “Barghest”it is said to have saucer sized eyes that can turn you to stone at a glance. ! This is said to be the inspiration behind Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hounds of the Baskervilles.

If you dare head into the gorge watch your heads as another tale is of a Troll that will throw stones down at you from above to prevent you accessing the gorge. Who can resist visiting a place with so many fascinating tales ? We have visited many here many times and one weekend we had arranged to visit with our friends, who also have a little boy the same age as Coben, they are already adventure buddies at there young age. The day turned out to be a lovely winter morning with the sun peering out through the low cloud. We parked up on the road that leads to perceval hall, here we waited for our friends to arrive. Once they arrived we said our hellos and got the baby’s prepared in the walking packs and got our walking boots on and off we went.
The walk starts on a single track path following a lovely babbling stream, which Mika had to dip her paws in of course, the path then meanders through a bit of woodland then over a few stiles and through some gates before you arrive at a junction of paths. Now you can do this walk clockwise or anti clockwise this particular time we chose to go clockwise and finish coming down through Trollers Gill itself. So here we took the track on our left and ascended upwards. after a short climb the area opens up and you can see the remains of mining works here, with slag heaps and remnants of buildings, but the most interesting things are the old entrances to the mines that you can see dotted around as your walking along. Some of these lead deep down under the ground joining a network of tunnels which are famous in the potholing world and can be accessed from Stump Cross Caverns which also has a family friendly tour of some of the Caverns.
Most of these are gated off for safety as after many years of been left the landscape is reclaiming them and most are now dangerous and collapsing in on themselves, however there was one tunnel we knew of that was accessible and possible to explore, up towards the top of this gulley so excitedly we headed up towards it.
Sadly when we arrived we found the entrance had collapsed preventing access, I guess we were lucky as this had only happened pretty recently.

So we continued the walk which climbed steadily to a junction of paths, at this point we took the path heading North East, this path starts descending down into another gully where we crossed a footbridge and then headed South hugging Skyreholme beck. We came across ladder stile which Mika couldn’t quite manage to get over, so we had to get her to go to the end of the wall and dip into the stream to get round, this was a bit tricky to say the least. (Something to consider if you have dogs) Once this obstacle was passed we continued on after a few hundred metres we spotted a cave entrance so of course we just had a have a little explore of this. you could venture in around 20m before it was blocked but was worth a look and explore.
Here the path enters the Gill, we scoured the tops of the gulley looking out for the Troll but thankfully didn’t see any sign of it so continued our way down. The stream here magically disappears and reappears on its route down the gorge, and during the summer it may not be visible at all as it runs underground below. however after heavy rain you will have to pick your way through, switching sides, jumping and clambering over the rocks. This is great fun although care must be taken especially with young children, but they will find much enjoyment on this stretch of path and feel like little explorers. N.B if severe rainfall the gorge may be impassable please don’t attempt to continue if this is the case.
We took our time down here exploring and trying to avoid getting wet , however one of our friends did end up slipping and sitting down in the stream much to our amusement.

Once down the bottom the area opens up, and in the summer this is the perfect place to stop with a picnic and let the kids splash around in the stream and explore the area a bit more. From here the path rejoins up with the route we came in on so we retraced our steps back down to the cars.
Seen as it was early we headed into Grassington to wander the shops and get some dinner from one of the many cafes and pubs. All in all it was a great day out and mini adventure. Just remember to get outside.
Details and map of the walk can be found HERE.
Always supervise children at all times

As we always say ‘Just Get outside ‘ You’ll always be glad you did and You’ll feel better for it. We guarantee it.