Map: OL 2 (South and West Yorkshire Dales)
This was an extraordinary expedition. Phillip, being unable to walk on Fridays, joined Robert at Ingleton Youth Hostel for a two-day expedition.
A ford across the River Dee outside Dent
We drove from Ingleton to Dent and started with coffee in Stone Close, briefly having for company a bird which flew down the chimney. We started walking as the rain started, heavy and prolonged, using the back road from Dent to Cowgill past Whernside Manor. We arrived at the Sportsman Inn, very wet, for a sandwich lunch and Cross Bay bitter (from a local Morecambe brewery; there is still no Dent Bitter here) at 1.30.
We left the Sportsman at 2.45pm, and walked back down the road, intending to use the riverside path where it exists. However, the River Dee was by now a raging torrent, so we couldn't follow the Dales Way footpath from Cowgill to Ewegales Bridge. The rain eased and then stopped altogether and gave way to blue skies and sunshine as we walked down the road. We were able to use the riverbank path (the Dales Way again) from Mill Bridge into Dent, using the levees above the flooded river, arriving back at 5pm.
We walked 9 miles and climbed 300 feet, largely in the rain.
Gaping Gill
We drove from Ingleton to Clapham, leaving the car park at 10am to walk past the church and up the track to Clapdale Farm, above the ravine trail. We then had to drop down to Clapham Beck and follow the track past Ingleborough Cave and up Trow Gill. Once on the moor the track led us past Bar Pot to Gaping Gill. From Gaping Gill there is a largely flagged path up Little Ingleborough which we used, and continued up to the Ingleborough summit plateau in an increasing wind, stopping at 12.30 for lunch out of the wind just before we reached the plateau.
We struggled to the summit shelter on Ingleborough with a gale force wind right in our faces, paused there for no more than a minute, and set off down along the path to Sulber Nick and Horton-in-Ribblesdale. The descent off the summit plateau is steep and rough, and once this initial drop is done the slope eases but the path is still in places uneven and rough underfoot. Once past the ruined shooting hut we entered limestone pavement country, and with the rain this was slippery on the rock and wet and muddy off it. We left the Horton path just before reaching Sulber Nick at a path crossroads and turned right along the Pennine Bridleway towards Long Lane and Clapham, another 3½ miles in heavy rain and high wind. We finally arrived back in Clapham at 5pm.
The weather was overcast but dry in the morning, and very windy with heavy rain all afternoon. We were both wet through and cold when we got back to Clapham. We walked 12 miles and climbed 1800 feet. In better weather it would have been a very pleasant walk, although quite long. The morning was excellent.
Just to complete the picture, the next day Robert, now alone, climbed Whernside from Ingleton, initially in overcast but dry conditions until just before the summit, then in rain most of the afternoon, although it eventually turned to drizzle and then stopped altogether. There were lots of people climbing Whernside but no one lingering on top.