GUIDE TO THE RIVER URE
(Below Aysgarth Falls to Wensley Bridge)
NAME OF RIVER: River Ure.
WHERE IS IT?: N. Yorkshire. Aysgarth Falls is a well signposted tourist attraction.
PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: From Leyburn follow the road to Wensley bridge (SE091894). The bridge here is the best, though not the only, get out. You might be able to get out before, but you will probably get into trouble if caught). Keep following the signs to Aysgarth Falls for the get in (SE011887).
APPROX LENGTH: 6 miles.
TIME NEEDED: Unknown.
ACCESS HASSLES: No access problems as far as I know.
WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Needs rain, but takes a while to drop off. There are several online EA gauges for the Ure, the most useful for this section being Bainbridge. Does anyone have any calibrations for this?
GRADING: 3 (4+).
MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Apart from Aysgarth Falls, Redmire Force gets meaty in high water.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Once you get to Aysgarth have a bit of a walk about and decide which of the falls you might want to paddle (see guide). We sort of abseiled all our stuff down to the bottom of the middle fall and got in here. The reason being that the middle fall has a rock shelf at the bottom of it (the same as all the falls) and it is a straight 20 foot lob onto it, nice. The section between the middle and lower fall has some nice grade 3 rapids on it so we didn't want to miss them.
The middle fall (Grade 4/ 5 in low water) was done by me in the club spud (there was thirty tourists watching and my ego got the better of me). It falls about 20 feet in two stages. There was a loud thud when I hit the bottom. Everybody else portaged it and we continued down some grade 3 rapids. Unfortunately, one of our lot smacked her shoulder about when she capsized on something. She decided to get out and I went with her. The others carried on down the gradually easing river.
After a couple of miles Redmire Force is reached this is an interesting grade 3 technical triple fall. It's grade 4+ in high water.
OTHER NOTES: Unfortunately one of our group, (actually her face) came into contact with some rocks near Redmire Force. There was much faffing about until the situation was bought under control. The team carried on like the troopers they are until the first bit of bank they could scramble out of. The minibus found a few of them stumbling along the road in the pitch dark some time later. We picked up the rest from some big estate place. Then we went to the pub. Excellent!
The more commonly paddled section of the Ure is Hack Falls to West Tanfield. The rest of it looks pretty flat, but should be navigable from right up above Hawes. Has anyone paddled this section or the bit in-between Wensley and Masham? Various tribs of the Ure are also possible in high water, including the Bain and Widdale Beck. The Cover, Bishopdale Beck, Walden Beck and Gayle Beck should all go as well - anyone run these and fancy contributing a guide?
CONTRIBUTED BY: Matt Deaves.
