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Sunday 27 March 2011

Station to Station – Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale

penyghent penyghent
One of the projects I decided to do this summer is to walk from Settle to Carlisle in day walks using the Settle to Carlisle railway.
And so it was that I arrived for the 10:56 train from Horton to Settle in time for the 09:56 train, due to some kind of slippage in the time-space continuum. It just so happens that there isn’t a train at 09:56 and neither was there one at 10:56 – it arrived a quarter of an hour late due to “signals”.


Luckily, Bruno was entertained by a young lad of about five or six or something who’d been wild camping with his Grandad. They also turned up an hour early due to the same gravity/time/space/British Summer Time Misunderstanding Accident.  Anyway the lad donated some of the scoff from his rucksack to Bruno’s “Save the Dawg from creeping malnutrition fund” and found some sticks for Bruno to chase and turn into tiny little sticks.

attermire scars
attermire scars
Eventually, we set off from Settle. I pretty much made up the route as I went along and it turned out to be fairly interesting.
First of all, we visited Attermire Scars – which looks like the Holy Land of your childhood but without the donkeys, roman soldiers and the people in their pyjamas with tea-towels on their heads.  Very nice and whitish and craggy.

victoria cave
victoria cave
Next, we visited Victoria Cave, with it’s long history of pre-ice age hyenas, post-ice age bears, romano-british workers in a workshop and modern foxes and badgers. And the ramblers scoffing their lunch just outside. I had a brief poke around inside. It was dark.

jubilee cave
jubilee cave
Then, a little further along, there was Jubilee Cave(s). This is a good place to insert children because they will pop up somewhere else from various hidden exits. There’s nothing much inside that would cause damage, apart from the roof which could take off an unguarded scalp.  I had another look inside and it was dark in there too, but with bits of daylight from various hidden exits.

erotic boulder
erotic (erratic) boulder dhuhhh
Then there was the Winskill nature reserve and it’s erotic boulders. I took a picture. It includes the dog. Its rock from somewhere else, y’see…. glaciers did it.  There’s loads of them.

catrigg force 

After this, we had a look at Catrigg Force – a rather beautiful double waterfall in a deep gorge. I once had a swim there in a summer thunderstorm; an odd experience. No swimming today as the water temperature was probably not much more than half a dozen centigrades, which is a contra-indication to enjoyment and , it has to be said, survival.

penyghent 2
penyghent
We went to Stainforth and then followed the Ribble Way towards Penyghent, which beckoned unconvincingly (as it looked quite big….)
So, rejecting the advances of Penyghent , we cut down to Dub Cote and Horton.

dawg considers ribblesdale
bruno considering ribblesdale
Note that the car park at Horton charges and gets very full very early, specially on summer Sundays. The station car park on the other hand, is small but free for travellers and was empty today, apart from the knipemobile. You have to brave the “no entry, no parking, just bugger off” signs from the residents of local houses, but I had no problem, apart from a “funny look”
Stage two coming soon.
Today was 10 miles and 2300 feet of ascent. It would be possible (I almost said “easy”, to include Penyghent.) My knees had had enough, though.

settletohorton1 settletohorton2
settletohorton1
settletohorton2

11 comments:

Andrew W said...

Nice walk that Mike.
Oh for some hills near here.
It's so flat sometimes water evaporates quicker than it flows.

Anonymous said...

love those erotic norbers

Dave Wood said...

Nice walk Mike, I have been looking at options for day walks using public transport myself lately and this one fits the bill, lovely area and Pen-y_Ghent if one of my favourite hills.

QDanT said...

Hi Mike the Winskill erotic (beauty is in the eye of the boulder)is called Sampsons Toe and was in the process of being broken up for walling stone, hence the big missing PIEce,before someone ? stopped it
cheers Danny

Mike Knipe said...

Contours, Andrew. Lots of contours.... ah, yes - the erotics - these and the limestone pavements were saved by an organisation called "plantlife". There's an info board. A now deceased TV gardener was heavily involved. His name escapes me....
Dave - there'll be more of this in a bit. There's also been blog walks from Dent to Garsdale and from garsdale to Kirkby Stephen over Mallerstang. That was a good 'un.

Jules said...

Nice report, Mike. Reminds me I must get up that way again soon as I can. Those er(o)atics are little temptresses, aren't they? Hanging around, looking oh so beguiling with their come-hither eyes. Oh, no, that's something else I'm thinking of, isn't it?

Anyway, good stuff as usual.

Mike Knipe said...

Careful, Jules, they're no pushover... arf arf...see what I did there....

Jules said...

Brings a whole new meaning to the concept of "wobbly bits".

GeoffC said...

Must be a psychic resonance going on here: when your post popped up in my Reader, guess where I had my mapping software open and with what in mind?.
Settle, Carlisle...

Like last year with the traverse of Lakeland from Silecroft!.

I've seen various rock shapes around there but not an erotic one yet...

Mike Knipe said...

Prolly just great minds thinking alike, Geoff. Spoilt for choice for routes along the Settle-Carlisle, though...

Mike Knipe said...

.Incidentally - I'm considering the Black Mountains for a backpack in the summer.....!