Report number: 750
Date of incident: 7/8/23
Where: Yorkshire Dales, specifically on the public footpath between Carperby and Castle Bolton
No dog, 2 walkers
We were walking through fields toward Castle Bolton, our walk was about 90% completed. We saw ahead of us, a metal gate. On the other side of that gate, only about 15 feet away from it, we saw the rear of one cow. When we were about 45 – 50 feet from the gate we could see that the gate was the footpath’s exit route from the field. The cow turned around to face us directly. When we got a little closer we saw one very young calf (looked like it was born 5 or 10 days ago; I’ve seen a cow give birth, so I’m familiar with what a very young calf looks like,) the very young calf was suckling the cow that had just turned around to face us. We approached a little more, (now we were about 20 feet from the gate) and we saw that TWO very young calves were suckling the cow. We KNEW that we would not/could not open the gate and enter given the cow’s proximity to the gate. Also, if we had opened the gate, a dry stone wall was to our immediate right, and the cow would have been about 15 feet to our immediate left, and it was a long way to the next gate.
As we stood there, I saw a person (presumably the farmer) drive his dark blue truck (a Subaru?) toward a building. The building was about 100 or so feet ahead of us. We waved our arms wildly and frantically and shouted at the top of our lungs to get the farmer’s attention. Then he/she turned behind the building. He/she drove out and then returned a few minutes later. More shouting and waving on our part, and the driver of the vehicle ignored us each time (of course the driver will claim he did not see us – not credible!)
As we were trying to get the driver’s attention (each bout of waving/shouting lasted 15 or so seconds), the cow seemed implacable and not agitated as her calves continued suckling. We did not have the strength to return and walk all the way back since we were almost at the end of our walk.
I decided to see what would happen if I slowly opened the gate and moved as if I was going to walk through. So I opened the gate – and the cow moved resolutely toward me, it’s head was now about 7 feet from me – I closed the gate. The cow maintained that new position.
We now had one of two choices: either walk all the way back, or find a place on the dry stone wall to try to climb over it and jump into the private/non-public sheep-filled field and then walk forward through that field and hope to escape it somehow. The only viable place on the wall for climbing over it was quite close to the gate that the cow was now 7 to 10 feet away from. As we began to ascend the 6-foot tall dry stone wall, the cow got extremely agitated: its ears went back, it approached us so that its head was about 3-feet from us, and its left front hoof was “pawing” at the ground as a bull does in a ring, and its mooing was ear-shatteringly loud. It likely thought that we were a threat and were going to enter its area. We succeeded in our jump, and we escaped the next field — barely, as the gate we had to open to escape was closed with barbed-wire. I was able to re-latch the barbed-wire.
We had minor, cuts and bruises getting over the wall and past the barbed wire.
The owner of these cattle should know that having a cow with young calves right next to the gate meant to be used by people on a public footpath is highly reprehensible.
Tom later added “The farmer knew his cow had recently given birth. He should have taken care to ensure that that particular cow did not stand on the footpath with her young calves during daylight hours. The farmer should be informed of this and, if nothing practical can reasonably be done to prevent a future occurrence such as this, putting a narrow stile in the dry stone wall to allow escape through the sheep field should be explored.“
Cattle Safety 