Cotter Force is a small waterfall on Cotterdale Beck, a minor tributary of the River Ure, near the mouth of Cotterdale, a side dale in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England.
This location was recommended by the guy (thanks Rob) who chaperoned us round the red squirrel hides. There will be a blog post about that alongside some photos coming soon…
About Cotter Force
The force is not visible from the road, but it takes only a short walk to reach it. There’s an obvious lay-by to park nearby. A short path allows easy access from the A684 near Holme Heads Bridge approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Hawes.
Cotterdale Beck has several other smaller falls in its course before joining the Ure, but Cotter Force is the largest.
It comprises a series of six steps each its own small waterfall with the largest single drop being about 5 feet (1.5 m). The force is narrower at 13 feet (4 m) at the top widening to 43 feet (13 m) at the bottom.
The artist J. M. W. Turner sketched here in July 1816 for his Yorkshire Sketchbook. The noted 19th-century etching artist Richard Samuel Chattock is known to have created two works of Cotter Force in 1864. Both etchings now reside in The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
The shots
As we arrived, I could soon hear the waterfalls, and we were there within five or ten minutes. I could see that I needed to climb along the side path and down to the stones in order to set up in front of the falls.
Pro Shot
Camera, tripod and all the paraphernalia about my person, I took shots from two or three locations, and found it challenging to find a foreground that I was happy with because of the sheer number of rocks.
The shot below is my favourite one as I done my best trying to limit the ‘clutter’ in the foreground while capturing the waterfalls.
As always, I’ve tried to blur the water but retain some detail. My only annoyance is the light reflection in the water right at the bottom of the image but never mind.
For a drive by and quick stop, it’s a keeper and I’ve received some favourable feedback when posting online.
Handheld Shots
As it happens, I took a couple of handheld shots with my Fuji just to see if I could get as good an image, and I’m really pleased with the output.
The first one below is effectively at a safe handheld shutter speed of 1/125sec, bearing in mind this camera has no in-body stabilisation. Note the edit has a warm tone added to it.
This next shot is exactly the same setting except I’ve dropped the shutter speed down to 1/30sec to achieve more blur in the waterfall. As I’ve mentioned before, this is about as low as I think you can go before the risks of camera shake rises considerably.
See below to compare all three shots.
Quite unique to this Fuji camera is the built in ND filter, very useful. Of course, it’s main utility is for street photographers shooting in bright daylight but it comes in useful for this scenario too.
Hawes and Grassington
After a fleeting visit to this location, we headed up to Hawes to have a look around. It was mid-late afternoon at this point, and we’d had our packed lunches but had a quick look around.
With some vegetables and gravy back at the cottage for supper, we each got a pie of our choice from a local shop and I bagged a couple of local ales.
There was a quick drive by shot as Kathryn spotted the farm from All Creatures Great and Small.
This led us to stop by at Grassington where the most recent version of All Creatures Great and Small is filmed.
This was a packed day with the early start for the squirrels so we were pleased to get back and enjoy our supper.
Onwards and upwards…