Strenuous Leader: Malcolm Distance : 11 miles
1700ft elevation on our walk today; part of this walk involves following a poorly defined path through limestone, some of which is loose and uneven, so care will need to be taken.
We will head north west out of Ingleton on Oddies Lane turning off towards Twisleton Hall before starting our climb straight up Keld Head Scar. We turn right onto Turbary Road and will take our lunch stop with distant views towards Ingleborough and Whernside.
Continuing along Turbary Road we drop down past Yordas Cave into Kingsdale. From here we head back to Twistleton Hall via George’s Scar before crossing the River Doe via the stepping stones.
One final small climb takes us to Fell Lane before dropping back down into Ingleton.
Moderate Leader: Pamela Distance : 7.5 miles
This walk involves lots of field walking 99% of which contained cattle (with young), sheep or horses. The other thing of note is that the styles are in what can only be described as a perilous state or non-existent, so time has been allowed to get over these. I will bring germolene for the first aid kit for nettle stings and cuts! Only wear shorts if your feeling brave vs nettles & brambles.
We will head out of the car park and though the town to pick up that riverside path by the River Greta. Some of this path has not been maintained so the crossings will be narrow and care will need to be taken. A little scramble up a forest path will take us past Lund Farm and across more fields to the outskirts of Burton in Lonsdale where we will lunch.
A little climb on a full tummy will set us up for more fields of cattle, sheep and couple of inquisitive horses and to cross Bentham Moor. The exit from the top field here is the most precarious so we will need to climb the stock fencing with care.
This will lead us to a little road walking where we will pick up our footpath across the fields and farms for the last couple of miles back to Ingleton.
Easy Leader: Laura Distance : <5 miles
We leave Ingleton via the bridges and head towards the Waterfall Trails. We pick up footpaths to Thornton Hall and join a lane ascending to Sheepfold and the Radio Station. We are rewarded by spectacular views.
We continue along quiet country roads, mostly downhill, via Westgate and Bank House to Thornton in Lonsdale. We can pause a while to see inside the church where Arthur Conan Doyle was married. There is a pub opposite. We can see also see the old railway, as we leave, heading back to Ingleton.
Terrain – if it has been raining your gaiters may be useful as the grass is long, lush and damp even in dry weather. There is one pasture that may be muddy with rain. There are about five wall stiles in total. On leaving Thornton Hall, there is a short steep stretch of road. We will just take our time. Expect to walk through pastures of sheep and cattle, they are everywhere, but they appear docile. Total ascent 708 feet.
NOTES ON THE AREA
Ingleton, an attractive little Dales town under the magnificent outline of its famous mountain, and close to the spectacular waterfalls, is an excellent walking center. It is supplied with shops, cafes and pubs, while Ingleton Community Centre has a small Information Point. The town was a staging post on the important Leeds-Kendal packhorse way, then later on the busy Keighley-Kendal turnpike. By the late 18th century its annual fair was noted for leather and oatmeal. Industry came in the form of textiles including a huge woollen mill. Water from the River Doe powered cotton and woollen mills. In the market place, is the ancient bullring, where the bull was tied before being baited by dogs, last used for this purpose in the 19th century. Further along the High Street on the left is an attractive, late 17th century cottage.
The road from Ingleton to Hawes passes White Scar Cave. Here the visitor may penetrate half a mile under Ingleborough. Discovered in 1923, the cave has two underground waterfalls, wonderful coloured stalagmites, stalactites, and grottoes. St Mary’s Church, at the top of the village, suffers from the threat of subsidence, as the result of having been built on a mound of glacial drift. Only the Norman tower, somewhat restored, survives from the original structure, which has been rebuilt at least three times. Inside the church is one of the finest Norman fonts in the West Riding, carved with figures of Mary, Jesus, the Three Magi and the Tree of Life, as well as scenes of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem and the Massacre of the Innocents. The font has had a chequered history. Under Cromwell, it was at one time used for mixing whitewash and mortar.
Ingleton Glens forms part of a private estate. The footpath through them is not a right of way, and a small charge is made for entry. The entrance to the Glens is at the bottom of the village, below the huge disused railway viaduct that carried the former Ingleton-Tebay line. A walk through the waterfalls is easy to follow, but more lives have been lost here in recent years than anywhere in the Dales under or above ground. The gorges are steep and the current swift, and to fall in is to risk almost certain drowning. The paths however are well made and perfectly safe with care.
Above Ingleborough village looms the great bulk of Ingleborough Hill, at 2373ft the third-highest mountain in Yorkshire. It is one of the hills to be climbed in the ‘Three Peaks Race’ along with Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent. Ingleborough’s limestone mass is riddled with great caves and extensive potholes and is topped with the remains of an Iron Age fortification. The tiny church at Chapel-le-Dale, St Leonards, is particularly lovely. The Lakeland poet, Robert Southey, wrote in 1847 that “A hermit who might wish his grave to be as quiet as his cell, could imagine no fitter resting place”. Ironically in the 1870s, nearly 100 navvies perished from accidents, illness and disease in the building of the Ribblehead viaduct and Blea Moor tunnel on the Settle-Carlisle railway line and were buried in an extended graveyard at Chapel-de-Dale. A marble plaque in the church commemorates the deaths and a booklet tells of tales of tragic deaths.