~Whernside~
30th August 2014
Ribblehead Viaduct from Whernside
Today's walk in the Yorkshire Dales started and finished at Ribblehead, but the finishing point could have been any of three railway stations, such are the opportunities provided by the abundance of fine walking territory and the prescence of the Settle & Carlisle Railway.
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Hellifield |
Ribblehead |
Mick and his dog, Sasha, are with us today. We catch the 09:40hrs from Hellifield and get off at Ribblehead 25 minutes later. We had a few options, but Whernside was favourite and it's somewhere up there in the cloud. We head off under the viaduct and loop around back towards the railway, delaying arrival at Blea Moor Tunnel to allow the cloud to lift a little and maybe we'll see a train or two.
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to Winterscales |
Blea Moor Signal Box |
The summer season of steam-hauled charter trains has been hit by a double whammy. The dry spell led to a kind of steam ban; the leading engine would be ticking over and the train would be pushed by a diesel from the rear, keeping the risk of fire by sparks to a minimum. Separately, the Fire Bridgades Union have been working less on certain occasions and with less cover, some trains have been cancelled or diesel hauled throughout.
LMS Coronation Class 4-6-2 no 46233 Duchess of Sutherland
Hauls the Crewe to Carlisle charter train. It was raining at the time, that's my excuse. No diesel assistance today.
Heading into Blea Moor Tunnel
From here, it was back to the popular path up to Whernside. "Three Peakers" in abundance, some are easy to spot - some have new boots on and stop to make adjustments; some walk purposefully and march ahead; most take selfies at the summits.
Whernside Ascent
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Dirty Dogs
Peaty pools provide the dogs with great opportunities to get dirty. Tricoloured Sasha has brown eyebrows and cheeks, Molly is just black and white ... and grubby. The weather is improving, but as the clouds disperse the wind picks up.
Whernside Summit 2,415ft asl
I don't suppose many give much thought to the wall builders. Both Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside are adorned with long walls. That's Ingleborough over there.
Mick and Sasha
Ribblehead Viaduct
Whilst eyes are fixed on the obvious engineering masterpiece; look at the pock-marked landscape, riddled with sink holes. We had choices here, do we follow the Three Peakers, head off into Dentdale or maybe follow the wall down Whernside into "new" territory?
The Whernside Wall
We chose to follow the wall and walk past the turn off to Ingleborough.
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The wall path is quite boggy in places. Over to the south-west is the ridge of Gragareth, with Kingsdale in the dip.
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After walking down the wall for long enough, we turned left and dropped down to pick up a path which headed back towards the viaduct. At Ellerbeck Gill, we turned to head for Chapel-le-Dale.
St.Leonards Church
The grave of Job Hirst is nearest the camera. He was the person in charge of building the Ribblehead Viaduct and died after being mugged whilst carrying the workers' wages. There was a little false optimism about catching the "earlier" train from Ribblehead, the only way we could achieve such with time to spare would be to follow the tarmac.
The Viaduct
In the event, we took a path up to the limestone pavements beneath Ingleborough, took one wrong turning, found ourselves where we shouldn't have been, came to no harm and reached Ribblehead a good 15 minutes after the train. So we had to sit in the pub (Station Inn) for more than an hour and drink some beer.
Ribblehead View
Back at the station and much brighter than the start.
Ribblehead Station
Soon the 17:42hrs back to Hellifield came along and took us back down the line.
Walkers: Mick n' Me with Sasha & Molly the Dogs
Time taken: 6hrs 10 mins over a distance of about 13 miles.
Route: Ribblehead Station to Blea Moor Tunnel, via Gunnerfleet and Winterscales Farms. Whernside, the Wall, Ellerbeck, Chapel-le-Dale, Souther Scales, Great Douk, Scar Close Moss, Sleights Pasture, Station Inn, Ribblehead Station.
Weather: Damp to start with, brightening up, windy on the tops and clouding over again later on.
Refreshments: Dogs welcome at The Station Inn. Good beers and a typical pub menu. C&O crisps at £1 per packet.
All photos copyright Richard Ratcliffe 2014 ©
Take me back to the start ....