Hillingdon

Four Hillingdon Ramblers joined eleven others for three days walking in the Yorkshire Dales during the first week of July. The attraction of the holiday was not just the fine Yorkshire scenery but also the chance to travel on the famous Settle Carlisle Railway.

Day 1

After a decent breakfast we set off to the station at Settle where we caught a train to Horton in Ribblesdale, just fifteen minutes along the line. Although we were deep in the Yorkshire Dales National Park we passed an industrial landscape of limestone quarries but also fields of sheep and cattle.

 At Horton our knowledgeable guide, Amanda, who was brought up in the Settle area, explained the route that we would be taking. We walked alongside the Ribble admiring the rugged peak of Pen y Ghent in the distance. Later we would see the other two peaks that make up the Yorkshire “Three Peak Challenge”………Whernside and Ingleboroigh with its flat topped summit. Down in the valley the walking was fairly easy and this gave us the chance to chat to the other members of the group.

 After two miles we arrived at Helwith Bridge where our journey took a steeper path in order to link up with the Ribble Way. It wasn’t long, however, before we were walking back down the valley side in order to reach the village of Stainforth with its attractive pub, solid looking houses, and famous stepping stones across one of the Ribble’s tributaries.

After lunch Amanda took us to see Stainforth Force, a waterfall at the point where the Ribble crosses from a band of hard rock onto a softer and more easily eroded rock, limestone. In the Autumn it is sometimes possible to see salmon jumping up the waterfall in order to reach their spawning grounds.

 The final leg of the journey took us to a site of great interest to industrial archaeologists, the Craven Lime Works. Limestone was quarried in the area and then heated in a massive circular kiln, over 100 meters in length and divided into 22 individual chambers. We were surprised to learn that the resulting lime was used in food processing, including chocolate manufacture, as well as the more common building and agricultural uses.

 

 Day 2

We took the train from Settle to Horton in Ribblesdide. Unlike the previous day the programme took us in a northerly direction. But first we were presented with a sight to enchant train spotters everywhere as the famous “Sir Nigel Gresley” pulling an excursion train in the direction of Carlisle puffed its way northwards.

We followed the Pennine Way and soon reached Sell Gill Holes where we admired a cascade of water as it descended into one of the many pot holes to be found in this limestone landscape. Access to another pot hole further along has been restricted in order to avoid any nasty accidents.

After a picnic lunch we soon found ourselves walking alongside a deep ravine, Ling Gill Gorge. The sides were heavily wooded because even the sheep were put off but the steep sides. 

As the afternoon wore on we had our first taste of Yorkshire rain, a slight drizzle at first but soon developing into a downpour as we approached the famous Ribblehead viaduct. The wind and rain gave us just the slightest hint of what working in that area 150 years ago must have been like. Shanty towns with names such as Jericho and Inkerman housed the hundreds of navvies working on the project. In his prime a navvy would be able to shift 25 tons in a day. Seeing the scale of the civil engineering project in such a windswept and remote area it was perhaps not surprising that over a hundred men who worked on the project died.

In the evening Amanda took us on a walk around Giggleswick. We were introduced to the history of the village with its 17th century cottages and ancient church and famous public school. We passed one particularly attractive cottage with roses around the front door where the late Russell Harty, a one time teacher at the school, once lived.

 

Day 3

 The weather forecast was not brilliant and most us decided to put on our waterproofs right from the start. Today we took the train to Dent, the highest mainline station in England. As we walked away from the station we were able to get a wonderful, if somewhat overcast, view of Dentdale. We then walked around Great Knoutberry Hill along the contour line. It was very windy but we were rewarded with more views across the valley passing shake holes where streams emerged from the hillside. In the distance we could see another marvel of Victorian engineering, the Artengill viaduct.

We stopped for lunch which was taken behind a drystone wall which gave us some protection from the strong wind and, by this time, the driving horizontal rain. (No convenient Chiltern church porch for us). As we set off again after lunch we resigned ourselves to getting very wet. The temperature was dropping and those of us with woolly hats and gloves were pleased to put them on…..during the first week of July.

The path had taken us to the valley floor and we knew that at some point we would be climbing the other side of the valley to reach the path across Blea Mor. In fact the path follows the line of the tunnel which was marked by three ventilation shafts. The path eventually took us to the Ribblehead Viaduct and the station with its very welcome, but very small, waiting room.

 

A highly recommended holiday.

Report by Robert Jones-Owen