watercolour by JOY YORKE
To see more examples click on painting & see her gallery
This is one of the ‘classic' challenge/badge walks of Yorkshire. Set in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park it is approx. 23 miles round the circuit and for those interested in collecting badges you have 12 hours to complete the walk. Based on Horton in Ribblesdale it takes in the hills of Penyghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Although all I am going to deal with in this ‘guide' is the walk there is much more of interest in the area and a year would not be long enough to see everything fully.
The Penyghent Cafe at Horton in Ribblesdale (tel :- 01729 860333)is geared to the needs of walkers and provides a booking out safety service for Three Peaks walkers and others. It is also the home of the Three Peaks of Yorkshire Club. To describe this establishment as a cafe is to undersell it; for apart from selling food and drink, and providing the booking out/in service it also sells supplies, maps and route guides as well as supplying a comprehensive information service. This service includes details of local accommodation (Y.H. campsites, B&B), route changes and weather reports.
Before setting out on this walk please call in to the cafe, check the weather report (it can change very quickly in this area) and book out for the walk. You should have with you a map/detailed route guide; if you have not buy one from the cafe, they are cheap and very good and it could possibly help to save your life.
If you start the walk before the cafe opens then write the name of each member of your party on a piece of paper along with the walk you are going to do and the start time and post it through the letterbox of the cafe. Remember when you return to Horton to call in the cafe to book back in; the rescue team round here are busy enough with genuine calls, they do not need to waste their time looking for someone who is not missing.
After booking out leave the cafe and turn right along the road towards Settle to the church. At the church turn left along the lane and then left again towards Brackenbottom Just before you reach the hamlet there is a stile on your left which obviously heads for the imposing Penyghent. Cross this stile and follow the path upwards alongside the field boundary. This path is well worn and easy to follow. In fact it is that well worn that at one point when you come to a marshy length a boardwalk has had to be laid to reduce the effects of erosion by walkers. Shortly after this on the steeper part of the climb are two sets of wooden steps over some more boggy ground. Just after the last set of stairs you come out onto a ridge at the foot of a rocky escarpment. A footpath comes up from your right and climbs straight up this escarpment this footpath is part of the Pennine Way. Turn left and follow this path up the steep scramble through the rocks to the summit cairn. Although Penyghent looks the most impressive of the three peaks at 2277' it is in fact the lowest of them. On a fine day you will find the scramble relatively easy but be warned, in bad weather, especially winter, this short section can be extremely dangerous.
From the summit cross the stile and follow the distinct footpath along a line of cairns on the western edge of the summit plateau and after about half a mile you will come to an old miners track that drops steeply away to your left. Follow this path down. Shortly the Pennine Way goes off to the left back to Horton, your route goes straight on. At the foot of the descent you cross a green road and through an old wall stile. On your right you will see the collapsed cavern of Hull Pot. Your way continues straight on, along a well defined path across Black Dub Moss and Red Moss Bogs.( Don't worry these are very rarely as wet as they sound.) Eventually you cross another green lane, this is the route the pennine way takes out of Horton towards Hawes. Don't be tempted to follow it, your route lies straight ahead to join an unfenced lane just beyond Rough Hill. Turn left and follow this lane to the T-junction . Here instead of following the lane go straight ahead along a well defined track. After about a quarter of a mile you will once more pick up the lane and follow it to God's Bridge. From God's Bridge a well defined path heads towards Nether Lodge, the buildings you can see about half a mile away. After crossing a stile at Nether Lodge you join a well made farm track. This you follow all the way past Lodge Hall until it joins the Horton to Ribblehead road (B6479). Turn right and follow this road through Gauber to Ribblehead. Be careful this road is narrow and carries a lot of traffic, especially on summer weekends. At Ribblehead there is the Station, an extremely hospitable little inn and usually a van selling warm drinks and hot dogs.
From Ribblehead follow the path that goes by the side of the pub and follows the line of the railway. Stay on this path for almost two miles until you come to the aqueduct just before Dent Head tunnel. Cross the line here and follow the path up Force Gill alongside the stream, passing some waterfalls along the way. The path gradually gets steeper as you start the ascent of Whernside by way of Coal Gill. The path remains easy to follow all the way up past Greenset Tarn to the ridge about half a mile below the summit of Whernside. When you reach the ridge turn left and follow the path to the trig. point. At 2415' Whernside is Yorkshire's highest peak but apart from that it has little going for it and in bad weather it can be a depressing place to be.
From the summit cross the stile and follow the ridge down to Low Pike, a little over half a mile further on. At a cairn your route leaves the path heading for Ingleton and turns sharp left to drop steeply down the side of the hill. After negotiating three stiles you cross another path at the foot of the hill before going down a lane. Follow this lane for about a mile and it brings you out onto the Ingleton to Hawes road (B6255) just Below the Hill Inn at Chapel le Dale.
From the Hill Inn take the road towards Ribblehead for a few yards and then cross the stile on your right. Cross the field to the stile on your right. A well defined path crosses the next two fields to come out just above Souther Scales. Follow the path to a notch in a scar. Now you start the climb of Ingleborough proper. Head uphill to the stile over the wall you can see in front of you. The pothole just to the left of the path just before the wall is Braithwaite Wife Hole. Continue on the path after crossing the wall. The path soon becomes very steep as you climb towards the ridge between Simons Fell and the summit of Ingleborugh. On reaching the ridge turn right and make the short ascent to the summit cairn.
After having a look round and getting your breath back turn round and retrace your steps towards Simons Fell for about 250 yards to a point where a path drops away from the ridge to your right. This path drops straight down the slope for a few yards to a spring before bending left to go down the slope diagonally to a cairn and then shortly afterwards a ladder stile. From here-on downwards the path is relatively easy to follow. Halfway down the next field you pick up a wall and follow the line of this down past the remains of a shooting hut to another ladder stile. Over this stile you pick up a lane. After a few yards the lane bends right but the path you want veers to the left past Nick Pot and Sulber Pot to another wall which is crossed by yet another ladder stile. Keep on this path through Sulber Nick, a rock outcrop, to another wall with the inevitable ladder stile but the end is in sight. Two more short fields with stiles and your wall climbing is over. After the last stile it is a short drop down past the railway and onto the tarmac road into the village and a well earned pint in the Crown Hotel; but first don't forget to book back in at the cafe.