B6160

Burnsall

The B6160 is a long B-road across the Yorkshire Dales.

The road starts at a roundabout on the A65 Addingham bypass in lower Wharfedale and so technically still within the City of Bradford, although the area is not urban. Also met at the roundabout is the A6034 and the road heads into Addingham along the original line of that road before reaching a T-junction on the pre-bypass A65. The B6160 TOTSOs right here to head east along Main Street to TOTSO left at the road's original southern end.

The B6160 heads north and soon reaches open country. It follows the River Wharfe upstream now for some considerable distance, although road and river are not always adjacent. However, here at least, the road soon meets the river and follows it to a roundabout where it crosses the A59. That road is actually forming the short Bolton Bridge bypass here; originally there was a short multiplex along the A59 in the village but the B6160 now has priority as the old road has been closed to traffic.

After Bolton Bridge the road goes through the village of Bolton Abbey, where it enters the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The road then continues upstream over the moors to the west of the river before dropping down again to go through Burnsall.

A couple of miles further on the road passes to the north of Linton. Here the road meets a spur of the B6265 heading through Linton to reach that road's mainline. Our road continues ahead to go under an old railway bridge and enter Threshfield, where it reaches the mainline of the B6265 at a T-junction. Originally that road did not exist and so the B6160 turned right to cross the River Wharfe and end in Grassington, at the far end of Main Street. The B6265 came into existence later in the 1920s and it is assumed that the B6160 was truncated back to Threshfield, with the B6265 taking on the final section through Grassington as a spur of its main route east to Ripon. The spur (the original northern end of the B6160) is now unclassified.

The B6160 now has a short multiplex in Threshfield west along the B6265 to the next T-junction, where that road TOTSOs left and the B6160 regains its number by turning right. This marks the start of the 1935 northern extension of the B6160. It continues north along Wharfedale. Some of the valley sides are quite steep and the road goes below the sheer Kilnsey Crag after going through Kilnsey. The road then bears to the right to cross the River Skirfare.

The River Wharfe is finally crossed a couple of miles further on immediately before the road goes through the village of Kettlewell. The road continues north along the left bank going through Starbotton and Buckden to reach the northern end of Wharfdale - but not the northern end of the River Wharfe. The river now flows along the valley to the west, called Langstrothdale, but the B6160 bears to the right, climbing the steep, narrow valley of a tributary before zigzagging along a steeper road to reach a summit of over 1300 feet.

After a short flattish section known as the Kidstones Pass the road starts to descend again just as steeply to go along Bishopdale - not one of the best known of the dales. The valley soon widens out and the road becomes more level. It passes between Newbiggin (to the south) and Thoralby (to the north) before zigzagging through the narrow streets of West Burton.

The road continues north for about another mile until Bishopdale runs into Wensleydale. The B6160 ends on the valley's main road, the A684, at a T-junction to the east of Aysgarth.