Pen-y-ghent Gill and Horse Head Moor

Friday 25th April 2014

This was the last full day of my holiday, and unfortunately the weather was terrible. There was low cloud at the start of the day, but at least it wasn’t raining, however it wouldn’t be long before that changed. My original plan for this walk had been ridiculously over-ambitious and would have taken me over twelve hours even if the weather had been good. The walk started and ended in the village of Kettlewell, where I had been staying in the youth hostel, and as originally planned would have included the Pennine Way between Pen-y-ghent and the Cam High Way. It is far too easy to underestimate how long a walk is going to take and only long experience can avoid this, but fortunately I had already realised my error and revised my plan. I still planned to walk up Pen-y-ghent, but to return to Wharfedale directly, which I think this was a reasonable walk to do, but in the end the weather prompted me to abandon Pen-y-ghent and turn back before I reached the hill.

Despite all these carefully laid plans as soon as I walked out of the door of the youth hostel I turned towards Top Mere Road that would have taken me in the opposite direction and up to the top of Buckden Pike. Soon after leaving the village at the start of the lane I saw how low the cloud was and realised that the weather was not good enough for a walk up Buckden Pike so I decided to do the walk as planned. Returning through the village I crossed the river and followed a good path that climbs over the top of Old Cote Moor scrambling through some scars on either side, and descended through heather. The highlight of the crossing, and indeed of the day, was Byre Bank Wood near the end of the crossing, just before I reached the tiny village of Arncliffe, that was packed with an abundant display of wild flowers. There were bluebells, primroses and everything else that you could possibly want in a wood, making it a magical place that was a joy to walk through, but all too soon I was in the village of Arncliffe.

Unfortunately the walk failed to live up to that early promise as I plodded along the bottom of Littondale with little to interest me except for the seeming theft of the water in the river at the bottom of the valley. After passing the village of Litton I started to climb into the valley of Pen-y-ghent Gill on a track high above the stream where there are many limestone features marked on the map, such as pot holes, caves and rocky ground, but from the lane and in the poor weather I couldn’t get a good look at them. As this week progressed I was beginning to wonder whether I was really that interested in these sort of limestone features as it seemed that I am perhaps more interested in bigger rock landscapes such as in Gordale Scar or in a huge, steep-sided, craggy mountain while the smaller scale water-eroded features of limestone pales in comparison. I prefer features that are bold and in-your-face rather than things you can’t see like underground channels, but ultimately it was the weather that ruined this walk because whatever there was to see was always going to look dull under dark clouds.

With the conditions failing to improve I decided to turn back and crossed the valley when I reached the road to return to Littondale on the other side. Instead of following the road all the way back I took a path a little below that was initially quite interesting as it passed many limestone outcrops and provided me with good views down into the sharply cut valley of Pen-y-ghent Gill. However, instead of lingering in this fascinating area I quickly left the limestone far behind me and allowed the dreary weather to reassert its influence on me as I grew tired of the walk on the path until finally I returned to the road where, in a sheltered spot, I had my lunch before setting off along the road all the way into the tiny village of Halton Gill with the long anticipated rain started to fall just as I set off and accompanied me for most of the rest of the day.

On the other side of the village I took a track that headed steeply up the side of the hill over Horse Head Moor while the rain began to fall more heavily. This is supposed to be quite an ominous crossing (probably due to its ominous name), but despite heavy rain, low clouds and wind I had no problems. I was not worried about the prospect of crossing Horse Head Moor in bad weather, though it did occur to me that some might, but long experience has taught me that that so long as I was able to follow the path I would have no problem and there is a clear track all the way up to the top and on the other side a very boggy but clear path led me down. Just before reaching the bottom I considered my onward course. My plan had been to join the Dales Way at Yochenthwaite, but in view of the poor weather, and to save time, I decided to walk along the road which took me past the village of Hubberholme and just before I reached Buckden I finally joined the Dales Way.

My walk down Wharfedale as I made my way back to Kettlewell wasn’t too bad as the rain had now eased which afforded me with a relaxing stroll for the last section of the walk. This was not a great walk mainly because I didn’t have very good weather, but also because the scenery wasn’t great. The best scenery was near the scars at the top of Pen-y-ghent Gill but the weather was so poor, even if it wasn’t raining at that point, that I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as I should. The weather made the scenery so dull and gloomy that it seemed unappealing to me, which was the opposite of the day before where great weather combined with great scenery made for a great day, but no kind of scenery could have rescued this day. Considering the weather, this wasn’t such a bad day and afterwards I actually considered it a satisfying walk, as any in Yorkshire must surely be.