CHAPTER 8: The Greta Headwaters

The River Greta (Chapel Beck) ...
The River Greta is formed at Ingleton by the
confluence of the River Doe and River Twiss.
Unfortunately, there is confusion as to which is
which. The Ordnance Survey and the Ingleton Waterfalls
Walk leaflet have the Doe to the east but Wainwright’s
Walks in Limestone Country and Ingleton’s own leaflet
have the Doe to the west. Upstream, the two rivers are
called Chapel Beck (in Chapel-le-Dale) and Kingsdale
Beck (in Kingsdale) and it seems simplest to retain those
names down to the Ingleton junction, rather than choose
between the river names.
As Chapel Beck is the larger of the two at the
junction I will consider that to provide the source of
the Greta, with Kingsdale Beck being a tributary. This
is supported by Thos Johnson’s 1872 book A Pictorial
Handbook to the Valley of the Lune and Gossiping
Guide to Morecambe and District (yes, really), which
considers Chapel-le-Dale to lie in Gretadale. Moreover,
he has a River Doe in Kingsdale, so if I were forced off
the fence, I’d say the Ordnance Survey has it wrong.
The source of Chapel Beck is at the head of Little
Dale between Whernside and Blea Moor. Here, Little
Dale Beck is joined by Force Gill, which has two fairsized
waterfalls and crosses the Settle-Carlisle railway
line over an aqueduct. Force Gill arises in Greensett, a
boggy plateau on the eastern slopes of Whernside. Our
obsession with getting to the tops of mountains – perhaps
understandable with Whernside, as it is the highest
peak of the Dales – tends to lead us to hurry past more
interesting areas. Although the slopes of Whernside are
now all CRoW land, 99% of walkers dutifully follow
the signposted route, part of the Three Peaks walk, via
Grain Head, ignoring Force Gill and Greensett.
Actually, my preferred route up Whernside is from
Kingsdale Head – all grass and no people (so forget
I mentioned it). But the CRoW policy does raise a
question: is it environmentally better that we all tread
the standard path, thereby giving up that path to erosion
and decay? Or should we spread ourselves thinly across
CRoW land? There seems little point in creating access
land if we are not expected to access it but, on the other
hand, even the occasional walker may be too much for
some of the flora and fauna.
The first time we walked the Three Peaks route we
came across a curlew’s nest right by the path. There’s
no chance of that today. The curlew is the bird most
The River Greta (Chapel Beck) ... 125
The Three Peaks are Whernside, Ingleborough and Peny-Ghent.
The first two, at 736m and 724m, are the two
highest peaks in the Yorkshire Dales and are wholly within
Loyne. Pen-y-Ghent (694m) is the 7 th highest Dales peak
and is in Ribblesdale.
The Three Peaks walk of about 38km, with nearly
1600m of ascent, is a challenging all-day expedition. The
Three Peaks fell race is even more challenging but should
not take all day (only serious runners are allowed: no
pantomime horses). The record is 2hr 46min for the present
course and 2hr 29min for a previous course, with the ladies’
record standing at 3hr 13min. In 2008 the 54th Three Peaks
race was run as the 5th World Long Distance Mountain
Running Challenge. The start used to be at Chapel-le-Dale
but is now at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, which has taken upon
itself the role of Three Peaks centre. Of course, walkers
may start at any point on the circuit.
However, it is hardly a fell walk or race nowadays.
Much of the route has been so badly eroded that the natural
fell has been replaced. It is a shame that so many people
(an estimated 250,000 a year) continue to follow such a
worn path. Jack Sharp’s New Walks in the Yorkshire Dales
provides a score of alternative long-distance walks.
I would also suggest a Loyne Three Peaks – replace
Pen-y-Ghent with Great Coum. The latter is only 7m lower
and this route avoids the long trek over bog and on road
from Pen-y-Ghent to Whernside and the eyesore of the
Horton quarries (and it’s 10km shorter).
redolent of the northern moors, with its distinctive call
as it glides earthwards. Some describe it as plaintive or
melancholy but it sounds bubblingly joyful to me. Never
mind the swallow and cuckoo, it is the call of the curlew
that is for me the most evocative of the new year (as
early as January in 2006) as the curlew returns up the
Lune valley to its nesting haunts.
Below the red-tinged sandstone slopes of Whernside,
grey slate tumbles towards the peat of Greensett Moss.
Here is Greensett Tarn, the sheltered home of blackheaded
gulls, and below the tarn is a line of shakeholes
and caves, including Greensett Cave. Their existence at
560m, when the main potholes and caves of the valley are
at about 300m, shows that there is a layer of limestone
here, as well as in the valley.
Little Dale Beck absorbs Hare Gill and Foul Gutter
from Blea Moor before crossing under the railway
line, 1km north of the Ribblehead Viaduct, to become
Two pages before: Ingleborough from Souther
Scales.
This is Chapter 8 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self