The Land of the Lune - Drakkar Press

138 Chapter 8: The Greta Headwaters
past Malham Cove and Ingleton towards Barbon. The
faults are responsible for some of the most dramatic
Dales scenery and for the clear change from limestone to
the north to millstone grit to the south. It is less apparent
that on a 2km stroll near Ingleton you may walk over the
oldest sedimentary bedrock in Loyne, that is, Ordovician
(Arenig), 500m years old, and also the youngest, Permian
Red Sandstone, 250m years old.
Our admiration of the outcome is enhanced as we
continue downstream, passing Hollybush Spout and
Pecca Falls, which fall over sandstone and slate, and
entering Swilla Glen, a deep gorge cut into limestone.
The gorge woodland is, like Baxenghyll Gorge, a Site
of Special Scientific Interest on account of its geology
and stands of ash, hazel, wych elm and yew, with rich
woodland herbs.
If you follow our path down by Chapel Beck and by
Kingsdale Beck then, as you emerge at Broadwood, an
official may well challenge your innocence by demanding
payment, for you have completed, in an unorthodox
fashion, the famous Ingleton Waterfalls Walk.
Walk 17: Kingsdale and Yordas Cave
Map: OL2 (please read the general note about the walks in the Introduction).
Starting point: A lay-by on the Thornton-in-Lonsdale to Dent road (692757).
This is a shorter walk than usual, to allow time for pottering about. Before I forget, take a torch with you.
From the lay-by walk 200m north along the road to take the track east over Kingsdale Beck. Continue for 1km and then take
the footpath that cuts back north heading for Braida Garth, 3km away. Follow this path below limestone scars to Braida Garth
and then continue across a field to the road.
At this point there is a new path alongside Kingsdale Beck to the Apronfull of Stones, 1km upstream. If Kingsdale Beck is
dry, as it usually is, walk to the Apronfull and then follow a new path west to Yordas Cave, where the torch will come in handy.
(If it isn’t, forget the Apronfull and just walk 1km along the road to the cave). The field within which Yordas Wood is located is
CRoW land, so from the cave walk above the wood to locate the line of the permissive path linking to the Turbary Road, which
you follow south. Stray from the Turbary Road only with care, for example, to see Jingling Pot, Rowten Pot (and the cave above
it) and as many other pots as you wish.
Now it only remains to locate the path back to the starting point: after a section where the Turbary Road runs near a wall,
stay on the Road across another field, and your path, a clear track, is 200m further (at 685768), heading south. It goes past Tow
Scar (worth a detour to the trig point) and then drops down to near the lay-by.
Short walk variation: Follow the long walk to Yordas Cave and then return along the road to the lay-by.
The Ingleton Waterfalls Walk is an 8km circular walk up
by Kingsdale Beck, across the path by Twisleton Hall and
Beezleys and back down by Chapel Beck, passing a series
of waterfalls.
The walk was opened in 1885 and soon there were
packed trains bringing multitudes from places such as
Leeds, Bradford and Manchester. Inevitably, this financial
windfall provoked disputes about who should benefit – the
developers of the pathways, the farmers whose lands were
being crossed, or the village of Ingleton itself. There was
also a debate with Mealbank Quarry, the noise of which
spoilt an idyllic country ramble. At one stage, there were
two companies involved, one charging for the western
glen, the other for the eastern glen: many visitors were so
disgruntled at being charged twice for one walk that they
returned home to put up notices warning others “not to go
to Ingleton unless you want to be robbed”.
There is obviously a difficulty in charging for a walk
that has four entry points – the tops and bottoms of the two
glens. The tops may be freely entered, as may the bottom of
the Chapel Beck glen. Some people resent paying for what
nature has freely provided. Guidebooks agree that the fee
is a bargain, authors not wishing to appear curmudgeonly
or to belittle the undoubted splendour of the walk. For
example, Wainwright’s Walks in Limestone Country
effuses “So small a fee! So great a reward!”. But then it
was one shilling (5p) in 1970. It now costs an arm and a
leg, with reduces the pleasure, not to say feasibility, of the
walk. The paths do need to be maintained, and they are, to
a high standard, but does it cost so much to do so? Today,
the Waterfalls Walk is managed by the Ingleton Scenery
Company, with an address in Skipton.
This is Chapter 8 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self