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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 Brow Gill disappears into Calf Holes |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
This was an easy days walk with good tracks all the way. The weather started out fine but ended up overcast with a light rain.
The PW lead out of Horton next to the Crown Inn on a green road that climbed a little between dry-stone walls. This green lane (Harber Scar Lane) is an old packhorse road from Settle to Langstrothdale. The view back to Horton and down the dale was good - so long as I ignored the large limestone quarry across the valley. I quickly gained the first feature of the limestone country the PW passes: Sell Gill Holes. On the left there is a rather modest cleft in the ground. However the Hole on the right is more impressive with Sell Gill vanishing into its depths. This drops to a 70 metre high cavern and is popular with cavers - a group was descending as I passed.
Jackdaw Hole (a green-clad chasm with a stone wall around it) and Penyghent Long Churn (quite small with a trickle of water falling into it) also provided glimpses into the Earth's depths.
Beyond Rough Hill the green road was deserted for a path across farmland to Old Ing Farm and then another packhorse road (Settle to Hawes) was joined. After the farm I peeped over a stone wall at the Calf Holes where Brow Gill disappeared. A little further on, I left the PW temporarily through a gate and dropped down to Browgill Cave where the stream reappeared. This is in a pretty little gorge with an old limekiln above it.
Walking back on the PW, I soon found myself on the rim of the deep (around 60 metres) limestone gorge of Ling Gill. The woods on the steep sides were very pretty and the stream (Cam Beck) itself was loud in the depths but not visible. This is a national nature reserve that protects the remains of the old woodland cover of the limestone country (mostly ash trees but with a sprinkling of rowan, aspen, birch and hazel in the understorey). The bridge across the beck has an interesting (just legible) inscription: "ANNO 1765 THYS BRIDGE WAS REPAIRED AT THE CHARGE OF THE WHOLE OF WEST RYDEING". The bridge was made of gritstone - I was leaving limestone country.
Climbing up from the bridge, I met the Dales Way joining the path from the left and proceeded along Cam High Road - a Roman (or even prehistoric) trade route across Cam Fell. The easy walking was rewarded by views down Langstrothdale. After a couple of kilometres the path became a tarmaced road (an access road to Cam Pasture farm down in the valley). I followed the road to Kidhow Gate where I sat down and had lunch.
After lunch I joined the old packhorse route of West Cam Road that branched off just before the gate. This contoured along the edge of Dodd Fell giving good views into the valley containing Snaizeholme Beck. The track became a bit damp underfoot as I reached the highest point of the day (570m) at Ten End. Through the gloom of the overcast sky I could see the bulk of Great Shunner Fell ahead - my next days target. The next stretch was downhill along a grassy path to join Gaudy Lane and then through fields to Gayle.
The official PW actually bypasses the old section of Gayle through fields on its west to a modern housing estate. The better route is to turn right at an iron wicket and stone steps and wander down to the old bridge. From the bridge the PW is regained by following the road and Gayle Beck past an old mill. The last section to Hawes is over an interesting flagstoned path down to the church. The town has a youth hostel and plenty of other accommodation (I stayed at the White Hart Inn). Hawes is the home of Wensleydale Cheese.
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