We set off to the Yorkshire Dales to walk around Malhamdale, a roughly ten mile walk, setting off from Malham, taking in the falls at Janet’s Foss and Gordale Scar, then on to Malham tarn, back through Ing Scar to the top of Malham Cove and then descending once again into Malham. It started off nice but then of course, this being Yorkshire, it started to rain!
First we arrived at Janet’s Foss a nice little set of falls sitting in the dappled shade of the woods, a great spot for a few pics. Then we pushed upwards and onwards to Gordale Scar, over 100 metres of falls (check out the size of the little old-people climbing it!). I then (perhaps rather foolishly) decided to have a look at the falls from above, so panted my way up the very steep hillside in the pouring rain, to the hilltop to see the amazing views and quite strange limestone rock formations. From here we walked on to Malham Tarn, one of the few upland lakes in this limestone area (and apparently Europe).
After a spot of lunch we trundled off through Ing Scar, a dry valley where you can’t help but think you might be in Lord of The Rings country (in fact, you are still safely in Harry Potter land as part of it was filmed in various locations on this walk).
We continued our very slippery and treacherous descent until we got to the really quite impressive Malham Cove, the site of a – now dry (ish) – ice age 300m wide waterfall, with it’s alien looking limestone paved landscape with grikes full of sheltered little plants and slippery wobbly clints, which I am sure would have been a breeze to traverse if it had been dry, but of course it wasn’t.
We made our way down from the top of Malham Cove and walked back along Malham Beck where I stopped for a few last pictures. I was however, quite impressed by the ability of one of the local sheep, who was happy to stand perfectly still while I took a 1.5 second exposure of the stream he was about to cross – I’m not sure I could have stood still that long in the rain!
A long walk but a good one with some nice pics too.
