A writer's journey along the River Aire

Walking on Aire is a travel book with a difference – a personal account of his journey through West, North and East Yorkshire, with a tongue-in-cheek nod to some of history’s greatest explorers, including Captain Scott and Marco Polo.

Andy says: “I’ve been a fan of authors like Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods) and Mark Wallington (Boogie up the River) for many years, and always thought it would be fun to do something like that. Virtually all the travelogues I have read are set in foreign lands, but I am more interested in the B-roads and backwaters of my own locality. If there was such a thing as a funny travelogue on Yorkshire, I would definitely buy it. But there wasn’t one currently available – so I decided to write one.”

The River Aire

Having made this decision, it seemed a natural choice for Andy to follow one of the county’s main rivers. “I wanted some kind of defined route to follow, one that would take me through a range of different places. I could have done one of the main walking trails, but other writers have done that before, so I thought a river would be a bit different.”

He admits to choosing the River Aire partly because of the opportunity to give his book a punning title. However, he was also interested in the places that the river passes through, from the remote reaches of the Yorkshire Dales to the historic market town of Skipton and the fascinating Victorian textile workers’ village of Saltaire, with its well-preserved wool mill, almshouses and churches, all built by wool baron Sir Titus Salt to house his workers.

A challenging journey

Andy’s journey turned out to be a bigger challenge that he expected. “I wasn’t particularly a walker before I decided to do this,” he says, “And I thought that I would be able to complete the trip in a week or two.” However, work and other commitments got in the way, and he ended up breaking the walk into small sections and doing a day at a time whenever he was free. In this way, the 60-mile journey ended up taking one and a half years!

As well as facing hostile livestock and sometimes unfriendly locals, Andy found that one of the biggest problems he faced was simply sticking to the course of the river, which at many points flows through private land. “It was a choice between stumbling onto private property and risking getting shot, or trying to find an alternative route and re-joining the river later.” He found himself frustrated at having to retrace his steps, miss places out, and rely on public transport and public rights of way to try to cover as much of the river’s course as possible. “It wasn’t predictable,” he says, “But it made it more of an adventure.”

At times, instead of walking along the riverbank, he followed the towpath of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, which runs alongside the Aire in many places. In fact, although he says he wouldn’t want to do another river walk, he would consider walking the length of a canal for a future project: “Access is so much easier.”

Hidden corners of Yorkshire

In spite of the difficulties, the journey had its rewards. Andy was able to gain a new perspective on the River Aire and on Yorkshire itself. “It made me realise just what a big place Yorkshire is. There’s lots of middles of nowhere, and a few somewheres that I’d never been before.

“My particular favourites were at the beginning and end of the trip – Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, near the source of the River Aire, and Airmyn, near Goole, where the Aire ends, flowing into the River Ouse. Both places were very remote, picturesque and unspoiled by tourism.”

Walking on Aire is available from www.andyowensbooks.co.uk at a £2 discount from the normal price.

Win a copy of Walking on Aire

Email the answer to the following question to feedback@waterscape.com, and the first two readers with the correct answer will win a copy of Andy Owens’ book, plus a Waterscape goody bag.

- Who built the village of Saltaire to house his textile workers?

Last updated: 13/01/2011