Little hill, big thrill! – Almscliffe Crag

The Stats

Area: North Rigton, south-west of Harrogate

Distance: 6 miles

Time taken: 3 1/2 hours

The Review

We’d had to forgo our annual Boxing Day walk this year due to miserable weather all over Yorkshire over Christmas, but all hopes for jubilant jaunt were not lost.  As the full family this time we headed for the hamlet of Stainburn near Harrogate and set our sights on a short round-trip, making the great ascent of Almscliffe Crag on the way.

Enjoying the views at the start of the walk

And, despite the weather throughout the previous days, it was a fine morning, and it remained that way all day. The start of the walk flew by and our progress was only slightly hindered by the occasional patches of wet bog produced by prolonged previous rain. The view however were spectacular and left you wondering why this place wasn’t even an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), let alone inside a National Park.

We soon had the crag right in front of us. From afar it looked like a castle amongst gentler surroundings, but up close it was more of a meagre beast. This truly was a beginner’s mountain although it couldn’t be denied that the views at the top were glorious. It was a great place for scrambling around and finding secret little nooks and crannies, perfectly sheltered from the wind.

Can you spot me hiding amongst the rocks?

After possibly slightly too long atop the crag we descended and found that we weren’t quite as close as we thought we were to the pub. And to add to our increasing anxiety, Dad had lost the photocopied map we had. We’d be having to use the inferior map on Polly’s iPhone to get by.

Navigating treacherous waters near Huby

To our surprise, it all seemed to turn good on reaching the pub. Even though we’d gone the long way due to the absence of a map, we’d arrived in good time, and there was a spare table for us in the pub. Also, the map seemed to give up hiding and revealed itself by popping out of the bottom of Dad’s trousers just before we entered the pub. We breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed a fabulous pub meal, despite the long and tedious wait for puddings.

Countryside that deserves a bit of recognition

 

Leaving slightly later than ideal, but with full bellies, we headed out across the moors again towards Huby. And only after Dad had caked his backside in mud to mine and Polly’s delight, did we return westwards towards Stainburn.

As with many of the short walks, they are always longer than you expect, meaning that we were ready for the end as the car came into view. And so ended a merry family day out, and one perfectly suited to the occasion.  Next walk: tomorrow. Stay tuned!

There’s Gore in Goredale – Malham Cove circuit

Finishing the steep ascent after an exhilarating experience in Gordale Scar

The Stats

Area: Malham and surrounding area

Distance: 7 miles

Time taken: 4 3/4 hours

The Review

10th February 2008. Its a sunny day at Malham but in gloom of Goredale Scar you wouldn’t realise it. 5 year old me hadn’t done scrambling before, let alone up a waterfall, so the prospect of Goredale Scar was no less than an intimidation. Unfortunately, that day my intimidation never wore off and my confidence never grew, so for the next 6 years of my life Goredale Scar remains untouched and yet to be revisited. That is until now… Alas, the beast will be conquered and the Scar will be defeated!

Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but on entering the chasm of the “beast” there was a sense of unfinished business. Its now 11th July 2015 and once again I find myself sitting down on tree roots resting for a moment as I watch people trying to climb behind Janet’s Foss. We then disembark to soon find ourselves on something like a different planet. Walls of rock close in on you from either side and it seems only a chink of outside light get make its way though the small gap at the top. And in our way, a bulbous, menace of a waterfall, blocking the entire gap despite its comparatively small trail of water flowing down it. It seemed there was a greater chance of falling off than getting wet.

The daunting prospect of Gordale Scar – 2008

So we had reached our scramble. Task 1: route finding. Could Dad remember the route we took last time? No. Attempt one: try a route just left off the main waterfall. Blood on the lower rocks wasn’t exactly encouraging and we soon found that a bit of slightly overhanging rock was our downfall. We return to the ground as try again. Attempt two: start by climbing the bulge of rock that you can see at the bottom of the left waterfall. The only problem was that it looked treacherously slippy. After being successful in scaling that rock we soon found there was no way to climb the rest of the waterfall. A hidden hole opened up in front of us. Great – how the heck were we meant to safely get of this rock drenched in water. Somehow we made it down and decided the next thing we should do is observe the professionals.

And there they were – two seemingly well kitted-out boys with a dad that looks like he knows what he’s doing. One problem for us is that they had ropes uncomfortably wrapped around each boy’s shoulder. The first one managed alright but the second boys ended up with his leg flailing and twitching with anxiety whilst his dad dragged his body against the overhanging rock. It was the next climber though that was the true professional.

The correct route

Calmly and confidently a man scaled the route with ease and showed us the in the end very easy route to the top. The rest of the walk was very different. The gruesome overture was followed by a quite magnificent symphony. A stroll over the moor eventually lead us to the marvellous Watlowes Valley. We entered a spell-binding place where the valley stooped and revealed a new one eventually to reveal the great Malham Cove.

Watlowes valley

The famous limestone pavements amazed us, let alone the wall of rock that we were standing on. After a bit of a clamber we headed back down the endless amount of steps on off on our way on the pleasant winding track back to the car.

The beauty of Malham Cove

Climbers on the rockface