Moughton Scars
1[The first two stages are common with the Ingleborough route.] SD803725 Opposite the top of the steep station access road, carefully cross the tracks to gain a footpath towards Crummack Dale. Cross a short grassy field then bear right to contour through a couple of larger fields above an almost dry grassy valley. The path soon parallels a drystone wall to its left, bending left and uphill over gently undulating terrain.
2SD795729 Enter Ingleborough National Nature Reserve at a gate, where small outcrops of limestone pavement begin to appear. The path becomes clearer as a ‘limestone way’ as it wiggles its way uphill, gaining cairns and waymarkers at the first wiggle left.
3SD790731 Bear right just above a gate. There are myriad faint sheep paths, but you roughly contour above a drystone wall, which soon deteriorates to an intermittent line. Good examples of limestone pavement are visible both left and right of the line – it’s worth exploring a bit. At the far edge of Access Land, follow some well-maintained walls into a narrowing, which leads to a yellow-topped stile (be careful to locate the correct one – towards the farm buildings, not the one to your right!).
4SD787740 Ford a boggy stream and climb a short field to a gate near the farm buildings, to bear right then through the farmyard on a vehicle track. Follow the farm drive out on the far side. Cross a cattle grid, then maintain your direction as the farm track veers right. This rejoins the track by a Pennine Bridleway waymarker.
5SD785745 Don’t rejoin the farm track, but instead turn left and up the bridleway on a faint stony track. Cross a shallow ford, then bend left on a faint vehicle track back into Access Land. The track now contours along a grassy ledge to a junction with a footpath from Horton to Ingleborough. Go straight ahead, staying on the Pennine Bridleway.
6SD775731 At Sulber Gate, go through the gate then look for a very easily missed stile in the left corner. This leads down a short steep ramp onto Thieves Moss. Cross an area of limestone pavement (with some small cairns) to reach Beggars Stile (in a prominent notch in the rock).
7SD777726 Do not take this stile, which leads down into Crummack Dale, but instead bear left, now roughly paralleling the line of Moughton Scars on an intermittently cairned path. This leads to a footpath rising up through a notch in the limestone plateau from Crummack Dale and passing the end of a line of grouse butts.
8SD789722 The footpath crosses a drystone wall to meet another footpath running left along the far side of the wall. Take this, then fork diagonally across the following field, leaving the limestone plateau to your right and a limestone outcrop to your left. This joins up with your outward path back to the start.