Top 10 Yorkshire Dales walks

The Yorkshire Dales is a world of expansive fells, spectacular limestone geology and achingly beautiful valleys, with an atmosphere all its own

The Yorkshire Dales is all about character. It is perhaps most famous in the wider world for the Three Peaks challenge walk; but this is one of the most distinctive, characterful upland landscapes in Britain, a realm of wide, glacier-gouged valleys, where isolation has preserved a unique rural texture shaped by centuries of sheep farming, all coloured and influenced by the underlying limestone geology.

1. THE THREE PEAKS

We all know about that Three Peaks, but this is the original. A roughly 38 kilometre (24 mile) undertaking, with around 1500 metres (5000 feet) of ascent, this round of Pen-y-ghent (694m), Whernside (highest hill in modern-day Yorkshire at 736m) and Ingleborough (723 metres) – all proud lion-shaped summits – is no walk in the park, as much because of the long miles between the hills as the hills themselves. It’s often undertaken as a rite of passage or a challenge walk by charity and fundraising groups, and particularly in the summer, the route can get hectically busy, so attempting it ‘off-season’ is often best.

2. SWALEDALE

Swaledale is one of the most northerly and least-visited of the Dales, and in the fields around Muker and Kisdon it hosts one of its most beautiful seasonal spectacles. For just a couple of months, from mid-May to early July (ish), the sheep are taken off the fields, and they spring to life with a spectacular array of wildflowers: as many as 50 species can be found in a single square metre in some places. They make for an easy but wonderful summery wander.

3. SIMON’S SEAT

Fans of the Peak District will be at home on Simon’s Sea: a complex, wind-sculpted gritstone tor crowning an expansive heather moorland, with gorgeous views of midWharfedale and the fells beyond. There are a few ways to approach it, but this is the best: start at Bolton Abbey (a spectacular 12th-Century Augustinian priory), weave your way up the misleadingly-named Valley of Desolation, take in the top of Simon’s Seat, walk along the beautiful River Wharfe to Burnsall, and get the bus back to your start.

4. WHERNSIDE

Whernside (736m / 2414ft) is the highest peak in modern-day Yorkshire, assigning it a certain prestige; but truth be told it isn’t as characterful as either Ingleborough or Pen-yghent, with its wide, whalebacked form not offering quite as much interest on the way up. But all is forgiven when you reach the top (at least, on a clear day!), with those immense views stretching out to the Lake District, and a wonderful perspective of the long shape of Ingleborough and its dramatic, glacier-bitten slopes, scored with limestone terraces.

5. MALHAM COVE & GORDALE SCAR

Malham Cove is one of the most stark and impressive landscape features anywhere in Britain: a huge, echoing, overhanging face of silver limestone, the remnant of an ancient waterfall that was taller than Niagara Falls.

But the neighbouring Gordale Scar, where water still booms through a sublime gorge, is no less impressive. The circuit from Malham, with a pulse-quickening scramble of the tufa waterfall of Gordale Scar (easier than it looks), over to Malham Tarn, and down to Malham Cove via the dry gorge of Ing Scar, is one of England’s most geologically impressive walks.

6. PEN-Y-GHENT

At 694m (2,277ft) Pen-y-ghent is the ‘baby’ of the Three Peaks, but it makes up for it in charm and character. Like Ingleborough, it has a distinctly regal profile, while the climb to its crag-girded top via the typical route from Horton-in-Ribblesdale, approaching from the south, involves enjoyable easy scrambling and rewards you with a magnificent view of Ingleborough and Ribblesdale. Drop back to Horton via Hunt Pot, or extend your wander by taking in Plover Hill.

7. BUCKDEN PIKE

Buckden Pike is a hulk of a hill overlooking the very top of Upper Wharfedale, where some of the most satisfying hillwalking in the Dales is to be found. Parts of its lower flanks were chewed away by a glacier during the Ice Age and now form part of one of the most striking U-shaped valleys in the whole of Britain. At

702m (2303ft) the climb is modest, but if you combine it with a pint by the beck at Cray and a wander along the path that contours around the hills to Yockenthwaite, you have a truly magical walk.

8. GREAT WHERNSIDE

Great Whernside is Buckden Pike’s sibling and shares many of its characteristics – a big, boggy fell with a huge sense of space on its summit. From Kettlewell it makes for an excellent walk in its own right, but if you’re feeling sprightly you can join it with Buckden Pike if you wish. Or if you’re feeling even sprightlier, lasso the pair with Firth Fell, opposite the valley, to make the ‘Wharfedale Three Peaks’ – a fantastic high-altitude moorland stomp that’s run as a fundraising event by the local Mountain Rescue Team every year.

9. INGLEBOROUGH

Ingleborough (723m / 2372ft) is not the tallest of the ‘Three Peaks’, but it’s arguably the best. With its cap of millstone grit on a long ‘body’ of limestone, it is shaped like a huge sphinx or lion, and the views from its sprawling summit plateau stretch to the Irish Sea and the Lake District. But it is also surrounded by bonewhite acres of limestone pavement, hosting rare flora, and other forms of fascinating karstic geology. The approach from Clapham, over to Sulber and back, is the best way to experience the hill and its surroundings.

10. AYSGARTH FALLS

Aysgarth Falls is where the River Ure charges over a sequence of three limestone terraces, to spectacular effect. It’s become something of a honeypot, but on a quiet day a wander by the falls and a stroll around the surrounding countryside can be a joy.

If it looks familiar, it’s because you might have seen Kevin Costner duking it out with

Little John here in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.