A new book on the River Wharfe is due to be published in August. The approximately 65-miles-long river forms, in part, the border between North and West Yorkshire.
The book, Walking the Wharfe – An Ode to a Yorkshire River, is the tale of a Yorkshireman, Johno Ellison, returning to his roots to walk the entire waterway before emigrating from the UK.
Retracing the steps of 19th-century writer Edmund Bogg, Ellison encounters a microcosm of English culture, landscape and history. Starting in the Vale of York, Ellison walks upstream to experience the natural beauty of Yorkshire one last time.
Wild camping along the way, he explores the Viking and Roman heritage, Victorian spa towns and picturesque villages. He stops off at local breweries and working mills, encounters an elusive otter and passes the Strid – one of the world’s most dangerous stretches of water. Hiking deep into the Yorkshire Dales National Park, including along the Dales Way long-distance footpath, Ellison takes refuge in a candlelit pub on a stormy night before reaching the source in a boggy moorland.
Walking the Wharfe – An Ode to a Yorkshire River, by Johno Ellison, will be published in August by Bradt Guides.
