East of Settle Yorkshire Dales ENGLAND
1
Start/Finish
Settle railway station GR: SD817634
From end of station drive, turn R along Station Road and then L at T-junction to walk along main road through Settle. Just after market cross, take road on R that passes to L of The Shambles. After Co-op store, head left up Constitution Hill. Beyond last cottages, take track climbing R, following route of Dales High Way.
2
Soon after gate, bear R along steadily climbing grassy track. This narrows beyond dilapidated wall and swings E.
Follow wall on L. Take either path after gate. Follow line of wall on R below limestone scars for 1.5km (still part of the Dales High Way).
3
Go through gate on R and turn L along surfaced track, joining the Settle loop of the Pennine Bridleway. At lane end, go through gate on L. Follow path for almost 2.3km – as far as signposted junction at gate.
4
Turn L before gate to walk beside wall on R at first.
5
At track junction, as Dales High Way goes R, stay with
Pennine Bridleway by turning L. Follow track for almost 6km.
6
On reaching minor road, go through gate on L – still on Pennine Bridleway but now signposted Settle. Route swings L on balcony path. Having passed through several gates, rejoin outward route at waypoint 2. Retrace steps to railway station.
called 7 Faces of Dr Lao: it had terrified me when I was a child.
Back out in the brilliant sunshine, dazzled by the calcite scars, we continued across verdant pasture. The rock faces above were dotted with openings, including the slim, keyhole-like entrance to Attermire Cave, where in the first half of the 20th Century, archaeologists found RomanoBritish jewellery and the remains of a chariot burial. As the bridleway headed up into Stockdale, we lost the impressive cliffs but there was no mistaking this was still limestone country: pale grey boulders studded the hillside, shake holes hid below the path and clear springs emerged, seemingly from out of nowhere.
Reaching a gate on the high ground, we were greeted by an expansive outlook to the east – the rolling hills, limestone pavement and dry valleys around Malham, famous for its eponymous cove and tarn.
After all that excitement, our return leg was a lot more sedate, crossing open grassland with more far-reaching views. Ingleborough appeared ahead with Whernside beyond its northern shoulder. As we continued, the impressive profile of Pen-y-ghent joined its Three Peaks neighbours. It was all very ‘nice’ but I’d been spoiled. After almost
5km of this gentle ambling, I was glad when the track swung south and re-entered more dramatic scenery.
We rested near the entrance to Jubilee Cave, thought to have been used as a shelter during the Mesolithic and
Late Palaeolithic period.
Victoria Cave, this area’s most important archaeological site, is nearby. Rediscovered by a man searching for his dog in 1837, the cave was found to contain flint tools, a rare example of Palaeolithic decorated antlerwork, a Mesolithic harpoon and various Romano-British artefacts. The bones of many now extinct animals, including mammoth and narrow-nosed rhinoceros, showed the fauna of North Yorkshire was considerably different 130,000 years ago. There was no sign of any of those creatures on our walk, or of the brown bears that used these caves just a few thousand years ago; only a handful of chunky-looking cows with calves – enough though to put us off exploring Attermire Scar with our confrontational terrier.