The River Ribble and Attermire Scar

Wednesday 23rd April 2014

At the start of this day I caught a bus from the village of Ingleton where I had been staying for the last couple of days and I was disappointed to be leaving so soon when I felt that there was still more to explore in the area. I felt that I’d merely scraped the surface of what can be seen of the limestone scars near Ingleton. The bus brought me to the charming market town of Settle where I joined the Ribble Way as it makes its way north out of the town and provided me with a lovely walk beside the river beside banks that were bedecked with glorious woodland flowers particularly the plant that had come to typify this holiday: primroses, but also a stunning display of wood sorrel in abundance near Settle. Just before Stainforth Force is an idyllic spot that appears to have been developed by the local campsite to show the river at its best, and with the sun shining at that moment it was a definite highlight of the day with the waterfall itself paling in comparison.

I left the river at this point to head into the village of Stainforth and while standing near a bridge looking at my map two women, who had been talking to each other nearby, asked me where I wanted to go. I said I wanted to go Catrigg Force so she suggested I follow a path beside the stream to the village green, which I did but I couldn’t remember what she said to do next, so I turned left across the stream and followed a lane that took me uphill before turning off onto a path that brought me back down to the stream. Unfortunately I should have turned right at the village green as the path I was on soon climbed away from the stream, so in order to stay beside it I basically trespassed through fields following what appeared to be tracks, but were probably just cow tracks. I definitely should not have gone that way. After passing a small waterfall a little downstream of Catrigg Force I was forced to climb steeply up the grassy bank and round to the correct side of the stream where a path took me steeply into the waterfall-gouged ravine of Catrigg Force.

I’m sure Catrigg Force is a good waterfall, but as soon as I got to the bottom of the path beside the stream I slipped over with a bang and had difficulty getting back up again. When I did finally did get back up off the slippery, wet rocks near the foot of the waterfall I wasn’t in a mood to stick around so I hobbled back up to the top of the path and onto the lane that I should have taken out of Stainforth. Slowly I made my way to the Winskill Stones, an area of limestone pavement that until relatively recently was being quarried for its water-scared limestone, until being stopped by a concerted public campaign. Unfortunately there is now not much limestone left, so there was little to distract me as I made my way towards Attermire Scar.

This is a fascinating limestone escarpment with steep craggy slopes that have many caves in them. I felt eager to explore all that I found, particularly the caves that are named on the map like Jubilee Cave at the northern end of the escarpment and the much bigger Victoria Cave, whose mouth was enlarged by the Victorians in their destructive eagerness for pre-historic artefacts. As I emerged from the cave it started to rain so I popped back into the cave to put my waterproofs on, but by the time I came back out again it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. These heavy showers were beginning to annoy me so I obstinately kept my waterproofs on while walking along the path at the foot of the incredible Attermire Scar escarpment.

I was unsure where to go from here as the hillwalker in me was keen to climb to the top of the escarpment, but that would not have taken me to the summit of a hill so it would be have been anticlimactic. I could have climbed up to the trig point at the top of Warrendale Knotts, nearby, and that would have been the best idea, but instead I followed a narrow path that climbed the steep escarpment and would, I hoped, lead to Attermire Cave and Horseshoe Cave, except that it didn’t. The path dwindled into nothing and I ended up walking past both caves. On locating one of the caves I climbed steeply up to it and had a bit of a wander in but since it didn’t go in very far I soon came back out and by now I was very hot from the strenuous climb, warm sun and waterproofs that I was still wearing.

As I finally took my waterproofs off I felt frustrated and disappointed. I was in a fabulous area with some stunning scenery but I didn’t feel as if I was really making the best of it. I wanted to explore the crags but I couldn’t find much to actually explore and the best option really did seem to be to just walk along the path at the foot of the escarpment. My course for the rest of the walk should have been to head over the hills to Malham, but I had heard some good things about Scaleber Force, so despite a sizable detour I headed off along Stockdale Lane, onto High Hill Lane and eventually to the spectacular waterfall. However, before I got there it started to rain again, but thinking that it wasn’t going to rain for long I didn’t put my waterproofs on and when I descended the steep path to the waterfall it was very wet with poor light so I didn't a good sight of the falls and I wasn’t impressed. After I climbed back up to the road it was still raining so I put my waterproofs back on and started to trudge up Black Gill Lane towards Rye Loaf Hill and then it stopped raining.

I was now so fed up I couldn’t be bothered with the potential bog-trot over Rye Loaf Hill so I turned around and headed back past Scaleber Force and along Stockdale Lane on a direct course for Malham. As the rain started to fall again, briefly, I plodded disconsolately along the lane past Stockdale Farm, but as the lane started to weave around the hillside slowly climbing towards Kirkby Fell I began to enjoy the walk past limestone scars and over undulating terrain. Ultimately there is nothing better for lifting the spirits than a good walk through the countryside! Not only was the weather very changeable, but the walk itself was very changeable with many highlights and many disappointments. The end of the walk was quite an up as I turned off the direct route to Malham to divert past Ing Scar and Malham Cove, and any walk that ends at the top of that awesome escarpment must be good.