Length : 20.7 km (12.8 mi) [shorter walks possible, see
below]
Ascent /Descent: 670/600m
Net Walking Time : 6 hours
Toughness : 7 out of 10
Take the 09.09 Carlisle train from Leeds City Station (Shipley 09.25, […], Settle 10.19), arrives Horton in Ribblesdale
at 10.28.
Return trains: 16.44, 18.50, 20.36.
Buy a Ribblehead return.
This relatively easy and very varied route across Yorkshire’s second
highest top (and arguably its only mountain), Ingleborough, rises out of the
verdant Ribblesdale onto the limestone extravaganza that is the easterly end of
the hill, culminating in a stretch along the Moughton Scars with their
extensive limestone pavements, while overlooking the scenic Crummack Dale,
where the Austwick Beck surges out of a cave. Negotiate the limestone pavement
on Thieves Moss and rise up to an interim plateau where you follow grass tracks
across to the Trow Gill gorge to walk up the dramatic gorge and through the
narrow chasm at its top. On to Gaping Gill, Britain’s longest uninterrupted
waterfall, where the Fell Beck falls into a cathedral-sized cave system. A
three-tiered ascent along an engineered path leads to Ingleborough’s
featureless plateau, former site of an Iron Age hillfort and very exposed to
weathers drifting in from the nearby coast.
On a rare clear day, you have views to Morecambe Bay and can identify up to 42 named hills and mountains. In mist or driving low clouds though, all you are going to identify are: storm shelter, trig point and piles of stones! You descend along a very steep engineered path for 280 height metres to another limestone shelf and wind down into the quiet valley of the Winterscales Beck, which you cross at a usually dry spot and eventually pass under the famous Ribblehead Railway Viaduct to the Station.
Walk Options:
A Shortcut on the ascent follows
the popular Three Peaks route up Sulber Nick and Simon Fell Breast direct onto
Ingleborough’s plateau, forgoing the very interesting features of Moughton
Scars, Crummack Dale, Trow Gill and Gaping Gill. This cuts 4.8 km and 180m ascent.
A Short Link Route between the Main Walk and the Shortcut, starting from
Sulber Gate, means you can walk along the Moughton Scars above Crummack Dale
and yet cut 2.4 km and 120m ascent.
A couple of Alternative Finish routes lead to Clapham village (for a
bus to Settle [not on Sundays]) or Clapham Station for trains to
Giggleswick (for Settle) and Leeds. This means you can visit all the limestone
and geological features on the ascent route without then ascending to the top,
which is useful – and even recommended – in bad weather. Staying on the main
route to Gaping Gill and then returning to the turn offs for the shortcuts is
recommended if the weather allows (the wind down the gorge may prevent you from
going up to the gill on a very bad day though). This cuts up to 7.8 km and 450m
ascent.
A late Shortcut, following Low Sleights Road straight to Ribblehead
Station, cuts 1.8 km and 25m ascent.
An Alternative near the end of the walk diverts around the crossing of
the Winterscales Beck, which – although usually dry at the crossing point – can
become too dangerous to cross when in spate.
Lunch: Picnic.
Tea: Station Inn –
Ribblehead Open all day every day. Food served all day every
day. Located 200m from the end of the walk.
For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here . T=swc.440
1 comment:
4 known departures from yesterday's 28, but also 5 new arrivals into the area (3 of those were walking yesterday, but Friday's walk). Plenty of others discovered a sudden interest in Museums, Art Exhibitions or World Heritage Sites upon studying the weather forecast, 2 of those only deciding to give up on the walk when at the Station (mind you, it was raining hard at the time)!
Net net, n=22 assembled on the platform at Horton, a little more than half started up the main walk route, the rest along the short walk ascent.
The weather was on-and-off rain, and partly light rain at that.
After the Moughton Scars, 3 turned right along the Link Route to the Shortcut ascent, while 10 (I think) continued towards Trow Gill and then Gaping Gill.
There we arrived just as a 50 person or so congregation assembled to spread the ashes of a recently deceased, including a photographer, some video-taping and speeches were also being given. We took our picnic and let them get on with it to then go down the steps to the lip of the waterfall into the Cathedral sized cave system. The Fell Beck mostly doesn't reach the lip of the fall as it does sink into sub surface channels and caves long before, and today all the water was falling into a hole about 40 metres from the fall (which is where the ashes were spread).
On up the three-tiered ascent to the top plateau, mostly in rain so much that most of us did not go to the trig point and storm shelter as views from there would have been of just - the trig point and the storm shelter...
45 minutes of steep dramatic descent to the road and then another 45 minutes or so to the pub in Ribblehead were left to do.
Enough time left then for tea, coffee or stronger stuff. All but 2 (I think) arrived back in time to catch the 16.44, although a couple chose to stay behind, waiting for the remaining walkers and/or having some food.
W=on-and-off-rain-to-midday-then-rain
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