Dales High Way - Ribblehead to Settle (★★★★★)

Yesterday I had walked the Pennine Way from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Appleby-in-Westmorland, and had opted to stay over in Carlisle after that walk.

This left me well placed to head into the Yorkshire Dales today, and so the plan today is to head down the Carlisle-Settle railway to Ribblehead, after which I plan to walk along the Dales High Way to Settle.

And so after heading over Ribblehead Viaduct, we get ready to get off the train at Ribblehead station.

The Dales High Way itself passes very close to Ribblehead - but the trail does not opt to take the route alongside Ribblehead Viaduct, instead meeting up with the railway slightly further north. 

But it is a very short walk from the train station to meet up with this trail, passing by the viaduct along the way.

Ribblehead Viaduct

With Ingleborough in the background

And having made it past the viaduct, we soon we find ourselves at Bleamoor Sidings - which is our signal to turn off to the left (heading under the railway).

From here we will run along the base of Whernside, before turning left, and heading over the top of Ingleborough - after which we will then continue on to eventually arrive in Settle later on in the day.

Although I have previously walked a short part of the onward route of the Dales High Way from here, whilst walking between Dent and Horton-in-Ribblesdale, from here round to Settle will all be new walking terrain for me.

And later in the year, I plan to return to do this same walk out from Ribblehead - but walking the Dales High Way in the other direction. 

That walk will take me out from Ribblehead to Sedbergh (where I plan to stop for the night), before continuing on to Appleby-in-Westmorland (over Howgill Fells) on the following day.

Today though, we head under the railway, and then start following the farm tracks across this pretty landscape - with Ingleborough visible on our left in the distance, and Whernside being more immediately visible on our right.

Whernside

Ingleborough peering over a small ridge

Ingleborough viewed more clearly (we will head up the ridge between the middle and right peaks, and turn right to go up to the peak on the right)

Here we are walking from farm to farm, and it is great to not only have very dry land underfoot, but also plenty of sunshine - after a fairly wet, and sun starved, winter.

As we continue on round, we start to get views looking back towards Ribblehead Viaduct - and we also get a better view of the ridge we must clear later today (at Ingleborough).

Looking back towards the viaduct

But soon, this run along the base of Whernside comes to an end - and here we start to turn to head more directly towards Ingleborough, with our route passing through Chapel-le-Dale along the way.

Our last close up of Whernside

Chapel-le-Dale - the Chapel in the Valley

Chapel-le-Dale is a bit of an unusual name for an English village - and it is indeed French in origin - with Chapel-le-Dale being a translation of Chapel in the Valley in Old French.

And the church here is St Leonard's Church - a 17th century church (that replaced an older church dating back to at least the 1500s).

This is a very small village church, but is also one of the burial places for those who died during the construction of the Carlisle-Settle Railway.

It is believed that around 2,300 men worked on the construction of the viaduct - living in three temporary camps, near Ribblehead and the area where we turned to head under the railway (just past the viaduct).

Conditions in these camps weren't great - and whilst figures for deaths due to the construction of the viaduct vary (often being stated as 'more than a hundred'), Church of England records note around 200 burials of men, women and children in the graveyard at Chapel-le-Dale during the construction of the railway.

Some of these deaths were due to accidents during construction, but others were due to disease - and in particular outbreaks of smallpox.

From here it is a short trip up to a road, and here I  break from the official route - which turns left onto this fairly busy road - and instead I cross over, and take what looks to be a decent footpath, that cuts directly up to the track above.

Here the footpath does turn out to be good, and I'm not entirely sure why the Dales High Way opts to use this section of road, when that footpath is available - but in any case we are soon back on the official route.

The official route does pass close by to Scar Close - and so that might be deemed sufficiently worth visiting to add in a small road section - but for me the car-free footpath remains too tempting an option to ignore.

The view from my alternate route

From here we begin a very slow climb up towards Ingleborough, and after a while the route will start to get steeper, before we have a section of path that looks incredibly steep on the map.

For now a very gentle ascent with some cows

Passing Braithwaite Wife Hole

Soon we pass Braithwaite Wife Hole - which at 60 meters across, and 30 meters deep, is a fairly big hole.

The name raises a few expectations of a (potentially murderous) folk story - and there are those that suggest that Mr Braithwaite threw his badly behaved wife into this hole - but an older record of the name Barefoot-Wives' Hole may get Mr Braithwaite off the hook on this occasion. And most likely, the name has been miswritten over the years.

But our focus isn't on the potentially murderous history of Mr Braithwaite, but upon the onward route to Ingleborough - because from here there is a very obvious question to be asked, namely, where is the path?

For now we are on this long, but fairly slow climb up the side of the ridge, but what lies ahead is a ridge, and unless there is a lift, no obvious route up.

Where's the path up the ridge?

The view near the top of this phase of the climb

But still below the main ridge

Here the shape of Ingleborough is one that you often find in the Yorkshire Dales - with it being a hill that effectively sits upon a separate set of bigger hills (with the different underlying geology resulting in differing levels of erosion).

And whilst there are a few spots where our path could take on a fairly easy climb up to the top, here it turns out that the path takes on a fairly steep route, straight up the ridge ahead.

It turns out that this (in red) was the path (same picture as before)

This means that quite a challenging climb lies ahead - and whilst the base of this ridge sits 200 meters above Chapel-le-Dale, by the time we reach the top of this ridge, we will have added another 100 meters to this total.

Initially, this is achieved via a series of fairly gentle steps - but as we start to close in on the top of the ridge, the steps get larger, and take more effort to climb. 

And here it is a relief to know that I have opted to head up, rather than down, this section of path - although the people coming down said that it's not too bad once you get past the steeper steps.

And for those looking to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge - if you opt to start in Horton-in-Ribbledale, the exciting news is that you will get to do this ascent, having already got up Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside (with Whernside being the tallest of the three).

But having made it up to the top - and got far enough up the slightly flatter section at the top to feel confident enough to look back - the views do at least make the climb worthwhile.

Safely on the ridge, and looking back at Whernside (which looks rather small now)

But whilst we have got up onto the ridge, we still have a decent way to go to reach the top of Ingleborough - with about a hundred more meters of climb to be done via a series of gentle steps, which take us to a junction of paths.

More steps to climb

Looking back along the ridge

With Ingleborough being a series of hills stacked on top of one the views are slightly odd, with the plain below also being the hill we climbed up to from Chapel-le-Dale.

At the same time, it also becomes clear that there is a far easier route up this side of Ingleborough - with a long path stretching out in the picture above, running down to the road slightly to the east of Ribblehead - and this offers a route up without the drama of our ascent.

From here I do head over to the summit, which proves to be very busy, and a bit of a disappointment in all honesty - and done again I would probably be content to simply turn at this junction.

The summit itself is fairly busy - and also unexpectedly flat - and there is the option of heading across to Clapham from here, which looks a fairly interesting route on the map.

But in any case, our task is now to head down from Ingleborough - and so we return to the junction in the path, and begin a long descent - down a route that sees us lose height fairly gradually, and over a long distance of footpath.

We will be descending for a while

This smooth descent does lessen the views somewhat, but it is nice to have a fairly smooth route across the countryside - and we do get to see a few flowers  along the way.

Some flowers I found

But otherwise this is quite an uneventful section of walking until the path starts to flatten out, and take us across fields of limestone.

Here the path has cut through the limestone

Here we get a better view of the limestone pavement

This is a landscape that has been very much formed as a result of the geology of the area.

The varying geology of the area

The three peaks in this area are capped with Gritstone - a hard sedimentary rock (formed through compaction of sediment) that is very durable and resistant to weathering. And this is what has created the elevated peaks at the very top of these three hills.

Beneath these are layers composed of a mix of limestone and sandstone - and then in the broader area there are areas of peat, and other types of rock.

This mix of geology, combined with the impact of weathering, has resulted in a very interesting landscape - with this impact extending underground, where underground streams and caves extend beneath our feet.

On this section of the path, the the limestone is most prominent - and whilst this section of limestone isn't quite as dramatic as say the limestone sections around Malham Cove, it certainly adds variety to this section of the path.

But before long, we are dropping down to pass a farm at Crummack, before heading out along a farm lane.

Farm at Crummack

Here we have limestone ridges on all sides, and start heading across to Studrigg Scar, which we then follow to the village of Wharfe.

Heading down the farm lane

Just past Wharfe

From Wharfe we briefly follow a quiet road, before heading out across the fields to the village of Feizor.

Heading across the fields

Up the hill a bit

Heading round to Feizor

From Feizor, we next turn to head east - passing alongside Pot Scar and Smearsett Scar on our way towards Little Stainforth - and here we find a landscape very similar to that around Attermire Scar on the far side of Settle.

Pot Scar

Also Pot Scar

Smearsett Scar

Both from a distance

Here we have been following a band of limestone called the Great Scar Limestone Uploads (round from near Ingleborough), that returns again on the far side of Settle - and continues on round towards Grassington Moor (the areas in brown on the map below).

Great Scar Limestone Uploads map, Source: Yorkshire Dales Website

I'm not smart enough to understand the full detail about the geology - but I do remain able to enjoy the impact it has upon the landscape - and here the Dales High Way does a great job of seeking out these areas of interest along the way.

For now though, we are saying our last goodbyes to this section of limestone - for next we are set to descend down into Little Stainforth - and from here we will be following the River Ribble round to Settle.

Looking out towards Pen-y-Ghent

From Little Stainforth, we turn to follow the River Ribble - and this proves to be an enjoyable riverside walk, that gives us views out towards the hills on the far side of Settle. And for a riverside walk it is surprisingly dry under foot.

River Ribble

Initially this walk is through a small area of woodlands surrounding the river, but as we start to close in on Langcliffe (which sits on the far side of the river), we are walking through sheep fields - with the young lambs playing, and here a friendly group of lambs decide to run laps around me.

But it is soon to say goodbye to the lamps, as the onward path cuts away from the river to Stackhouse - and then after a short section along a quiet road, we are soon heading back across the fields, on our way towards Settle.

Settle appears in the distance

Here we arrive into town to bring to a close an excellent day of walking - ready to take the train home.

Settle United Football Ground - a reasonably pretty place to play football

Just before we finish of the day, we pass by the ground for Settle United Football club, who play in the East Lancashire Football League - but despite this being grassroots level, the club remain optimistic enough to add travel information for those arriving by helicopter:

Whilst not an official landing pad, there is plenty of space around our ground to land a helicopter. Use the school fields and then walk across this to reach our ground. Many fans choose executive travel arrangements to see us, so we thought it worth mentioning.

Maybe next time I'll be able to request a helicopter ride home.

Total Distance: 17.9 miles (16.8 miles on the Dales High Way)

Total Ascent: 2,598 feet (2,357 feet on the Dales High Way)

Enjoyment Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Click for the writeup of the section of the Dales High Way from Skipton to Settle.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 98 OS Landranger map - while there is also a Dales High Way guidebook which includes OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked