A Walk up a Yorkshire Peak: From Clapham to Ingleton via Ingleborough. . .

We had a gorgeous walk out with our rambling group last Sunday, another around-and-up walk, this time the "up" being Ingleborough, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks.  The weather was cool but sunny and the ground relatively dry beneath our feet.  I did the hard walk, with some trepidation as I don't feel as fit as I should be for a 13.5 mile walk with one big climb, but decided to give it my best shot.

While I've climbed Ingleborough before, during the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, this was a different and slightly easier approach.  We started in the village of Clapham and soon joined a path along a valley with waterfalls. . .

. . . pretty little becks. . .

. . . and deep gorges.

Then we emerged out into the open with our first glimpse of Little Ingleborough, the teaser hill before the peak itself.

This area has a lot of caves, many of which we were probably walking over.   We saw the opening to Gaping Gill, where the beck flows down 100 metres to become Britain's highest unbroken waterfall.  During certain times of the year, the Bradford Pothole Club holds a winch meet, where they will take people down into the cave via ropes.

I'm too claustrophobic to go caving; I'd much rather head for the hills.

And the miles of open moorland that stretch out to the east.

Here we are on the top of Little Ingleborough, heading for the real summit.

On the top you can see Whernside, the second of the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

Heading down. . .

. . . with the Ribblehead Viaduct just in view among the shadows.

We turned abruptly to our left before getting there though, and went down the steep way as you can see from this shot looking backwards. You really need to pay attention on these types of descents and you definitely feel it in the knees. I'm very bad about remembering to bring my poles.

At the bottom were sheep.

And some curious playful lambs.



We now started heading towards Ingleton with Ingleborough now on our left.  There are lots of limestone outcrops on this route making for a fascinating and surreal landscape.

A short detour into the woods and you get these wonderful moss-covered stones.

At various spots among the limestone, you'll get an odd lone boulder that has been glacially dumped thousands of years ago. These are called limestone erratics.

I have to say, when dry, the limestone is quite fun to walk on.

And then it was back to farmland and traditional Yorkshire dry stone walls (you can certainly see where the stone has come from in this area).

It was a wonderful walk but I did feel quite shattered after it.  Definitely needed a hot bath to soak those aching legs when I got home.