English travels - Part 6 - Ingleton, Yorkshire Dales

Another day another trig point - Ingleborough summit

We have been very lucky with the weather, for what apparently has been a wet May, we’ve not been out in it. Today, our last, is the worst, rain forecast for most of the day and it seems to be right. Hard to believe I was in the sun in shorts yesterday. We were going to look at the Anderton Boat lift, but the visitor centre and cafe aren’t actually open today, so unless a narrow boat happened by there wouldn’t actually be much to see. Perhaps not then, unless we get stir crazy, and even then, the pub is nearer!

We did two walks from the campsite in Ingleton (Lundholm Farm CL location: 54°09'00.6"N 2°29'01.4"W). The Ingleton waterfalls walk which cost £8 per person, which feels wrong somehow, but was very pretty. Disappointingly neither the coffee wagon or midway cafe were open BUT this did mean we could stop at the Wheatsheaf pub and sit inside and eat! How come a picture of me, inside, with a pint and the comment from Brian of “at last” got over 40 likes/comments on Facebook while my post all about baby lambs got less than 10? There's photos of all five waterfalls on our Relive video, click the following link and press play: Ingleton waterfall walk

Thornton Force waterfall on the Ingleton waterfall trail

It's a 5 mile hike through lovely scenery

The second walk was a more serious proposition, the first was 4 1/2 miles with an estimated time of between 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 hours. We did it in 2. This one was going to be 9 miles, but with much more ascent. We got the 9am bus to Clapham, to head up Ingleborough, the second highest of the Yorkshire 3 peaks at 723 m returning to Ingleton. It is completely possible to go up and down from Ingleton, but a circular walk is always nicer, and we did get to walk passed Gaping Gill to have a quick peer. We were very lucky, again, with the weather, there were about three spots of rain, just as we were having lunch on the summit. The wind however was quite strong all the way down. We found ourselves back in the pub, in the garden this time, as it was hot and sunny, having a pint 5 hours after we got on the bus. Despite his knee feeling a bit sore, at last Brian has stopped going on about getting exercise!

And the pub at the end is always very welcome, particularly on this day, 17th May 2021, the day CoVid-19 lockdown regulations were relaxed enough to allow pubs and restaurants to reopen for indoor serving, we were one of the first in, the beer and the food were worth the wait 

Off on the Ingleborough hike from Clapham

We suddenly found ourselves with a couple of extra days to play with, our first sit of the season has been cancelled due to sickness (not Covid) of the homeowner. We couldn’t stay on the site in Ingleton for another day so we came half way back for a couple of nights. We are on an attractive site near Great Budworth, arriving yesterday on my birthday (Belmont Hall campsite, location: 53°18'05.1"N 2°31'15.8"W). We went for a little walk to check out the pub we’d booked for the evening and stretch our legs. Met a field of cows but they weren’t bothered as we walked through them. Unlike the ones right by the campsite, a group, of young heifers, who on our third walk through followed us right up close behind, getting skittery and jumping about. Slightly intimidating, but we’d gone beyond the point of no return.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our trip away, the Yorkshire Dales were great, and we’ll definitely be back.

Trow Gill, a dry gash in the hillside on the slopes of Ingleborough formed in the last ice age by a glacier. Now a picturesque gill to walk through on the route up Ingleborough from Clapham and also a climbing area with several bolted routes evident on the wall faces

A little further up we came upon Gaping Gill, one of the most famous caves in the Yorkshire Dales and one of the largest underground chambers in Britain with a vertical drop of 100m. It is possible for members of the public with no caving experience to descend the main chamber at certain times of the year for a fee of £15 when the Craven pothole club sets up a winch  

Walking down to the opening of Gaping Gill. No winch today, but we could walk on that little path to the left of the opening and peer down...

Peering over the edge. It's a long way down and looks very wet!

On the highest point of Ingleborough. The trig point in the first photo on this blog post is a short distance from here and probably 2m lower than this

View from the summit. Ingleborough is in Yorkshire, but we're looking out to Ingleton below, then out across Lancashire and, in the distance, the sea in Morecambe bay. I think the bit of land way out in the bay on the right in is Barrow in Furness and south Lake District in Cumbria. Bits of three counties in one photo, but I'll be corrected if anyone knows differently

Near the campsite in Ingleton looking towards Ingleborough

On the campsite in Belmont Hall near Northwich

Pleasant afternoon walking near the campsite and the Anderton Boat Lift