Pen-y-Ghent
This weekend, we had a lovely walk up one of the Yorkshire’s 3 peaks, Pen-y-Ghent, with our lovely friends Lucy and Harry. We had a really lovely day, and I am definitely looking forward to ticking Ingleborough and Whernside off my list soon too.
I think that there are a lot of routes up to the summit of Pen-y-Ghent, some very direct and others following a more circular route for a nice day out. We decided to park in Horton in Ribblesdale and head up via Horton Scar Lane and down back to the car park via Brackenbottom Lane (“Yorkshire Dales Outstanding Circular Walks book, page 58). This gave us well-marked paths with gravel and stone steps on the way up, and a slightly more scramble route to begin the descent. This circular route also allowed us to take a quick diversion to Hull Pot, a square-cut hole which was impressive to look at. The views throughout the walk were really lovely, and the whole route felt very well trodden and easy to follow. Something I also really liked was the section of woodland on the way back. The walk felt very varied in terrain, views and pathways, which made it exciting and an enjoyable walk.
Parking: We parked behind The Golden Lion Hotel, which had an honesty box suggesting £4 for the day. There were other car parks along the road with set fees too.
Length: We finished our walk at 10.44km, 487m elevation gain and 2 hours and 40 mins.
Food: Our route took us through some small towns with lovely bakeries, cafes, and shops.
Drive: The drive from Leeds took an hour and a half, which was on the longer side for us. On the plus side, the views were lovely, and it was so nice to drive by the small towns and see little settlements along the way.
Route: Our route was circular, which was really nice and allowed for a lovely afternoon of walking. There are loads of options for whether you prefer to get to the top and come straight back down quickly, have an afternoon out, want to have a scramble up and steps down or vice versa. It is a walk that can be adapted to suit you.
Accessibility: The walk does have decent elevation gain, but this did feel fairly gradual. I can imagine that coming up the more scrambly way would feel like the elevation gain was more intense. However, the pathways were very clear and the steps on the way up were well placed.
Landmarks: Hull Pot was really interesting to see. It seemed to appear out of nowhere! I am sure that after more rainfall, we would have been able to see some kind of waterfall, and the hole would have been much fuller, as opposed to empty, like how we saw it. Walking up Pen-y-ghent, one of Yorkshire’s three peaks, feels like a landmark in itself! I am really pleased to have done 1/3 and look forward to doing the others at some point during my time living in Yorkshire.
We had a lovely day, and I can’t wait to host my friends again soon and to maybe conquer Whernside or Ingleborough next! Thank you for reading, see you next time.
