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This video shows a circular walk from the picturesque village of Clapham, which affords wonderful views of Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent. It heads past Ingleborough Cave, which can be visited and then on through the impressive Trow Gill to reach Gaping Gill. The entire walk has been filmed in 4K, allowing walkers to see the entire route, including where to park, eat, and drink.
Today's walk is Ingleborough by Ingleborough Cave, Trow Gill and Gaping Gill from Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. Before we start, let's have a look at where we are walking today. We climb out of Clapham along Clapdale Lane, before dropping down onto Clapdale Drive and passing the entrance to Ingleborough Cave.
We then head on to and through Trow Gill, a narrow, steep-sided limestone gorge. We then head to get our first real view of Ingleborough just before we reach the crater around the top of Gaping Gill, a 98-metre-deep pothole and one of the most famous caves and largest underground chambers in the UK. The climb gets steeper and more exposed now as we head up towards Little Ingleborough. Little Ingleborough with a much-increased panorama affords views ahead of the Lakeland Fells and out to Morecambe Bay.
We then continue on to the summit plateau of Ingleborough itself, and at 724 metres high, it is the second highest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks behind Whernside. Ingleborough summit on a clear day provides views to the Lakeland Fells to the North and as far away as the Snowdonia range to the South. Wandering the edges provides excellent views across the Howgills, Whernside and the Ribblehead Viaduct.
The return route is across Simon Fell breast and then on through some limestone pavement before heading down along Long Lane back into Clapham. Stay watching until the end to see where you can eat and drink after the walk. Back in the pay and display car park in Clapham, which is in the Yorkshire Dales, there is an information board in front of the toilets.
We pass by the Lake House as we exit the car park - more on that later and then we turn right to start heading along the road. Ahead now is St James's church. To the right here is the track that we will return down at the end of the walk. But for now, we just follow the road around to the left as it passes by the church.
The road passes over Clapham Beck, which is fed further up from Fell Beck, which originates on the slopes of Ingleborough before it tumbles into Gaping Gill, which we will visit shortly. It exits that via the Ingleborough Cave system and then drops into Clapham Beck. On meeting the road, turn right, where shortly you will get a view across to Clapham Falls, a man-made falls constructed in 1837 as part of the remodelling of the Ingleborough Estate.
At the top of the road is the entrance to Ingleborough Trail. There's an entry charge currently £2.50 in March 2023. You can use this route to look at the trail if you wish, and if you do, I'll show you where you rejoin our walk further on. For now, we just follow the road around to the left, past the old Sawmill Cafe, and then continue along the road for about 75 metres.
We then arrive at the footpath sign for Ingleborough and Gaping Gill. We turn right here, following the footpath sign to walk up Clapdale Lane, which is a walled track.
You walk along Clapdale Lane for about one kilometre until you reach a gate. Pass through the gate and continue straight on. After about another 500 metres, you reach Clapdale. Just keep straight ahead on the track and then pass through the far gate. Immediately through the gate, you will see a footpath sign by a stone. We turn right here to follow the footpath downhill.
We are dropping here down onto Clapdale Drive. This was the track that you would have walked up if you came through the Ingleborough Trail. Head down to and pass through the gate to turn left onto the track. Those who came up via the Ingleborough Trail will join us here. Heading along the track, you will likely hear a thumping sound ahead.
The noise is coming from these hydraulic ram pumps. They are used to pump water uphill from Clapham Beck to provide a water supply to nearby dwellings and troughs. Heading along the road, we soon reach Ingleborough Cave. You can pay to go in and explore the amazing sculpted passages and cave formations which Ingleborough has to offer. These were hidden from view until 1837, when James Farrer and his workmen broke down the dams to reveal the cave as it is today. There is now a concrete path inside where you can walk along, and lighting to view the wonderful stalagmites, stalactites and calcite flows.
It is one of the country's natural wonders, and as the sign outside modestly claims, the best show cave in Britain; they don't do things by half in Yorkshire. Not sure whether the measurements are accurate, but footpath signs rarely give distances to the nearest 5 or 50 metres. They are generally to the nearest quarter mile, give or take a bit. Walk on and pass through the next gate. Walk on now along the track. Pass through the next gate and then again keep straight on as we head up towards Trow Gill.
Trow Gill is an impressive wooded limestone gorge. It was thought to have been fashioned by meltwater from the last or the previous ice ages as a deep sheet of ice that covered Ingleborough, which slowly melted.
Did I mention it was cold today? Minus four at the car when I set off, and now it feels colder. You can see the icicles over to the right on the wall. With the weight of stone being held up here, it always amazes me why many open caves like this just don't collapse.
At the top of the short climb, which was made a lot more difficult today because of the ice on the path, the path starts to flatten, and now you just walk ahead keeping to the right of the wall. Keep on the path now for about three-quarters of a mile until just after when you can see Ingleborough over to your left, you reach two wooden gates in the wall stile. Over the stile, you can see the path to be followed, heading up Little Ingleborough with Ingleborough itself beyond that. Looking around from the stile, you can see the path that we just walked up and then another path coming in from Long Lane. That's the lane that we will walk down towards the end of this walk. Now just head over the stile and then head directly away from the wall in the direction of Little Ingleborough ahead.
At one point, the path splits. If you want to go via Gaping Gill, take the right-hand path; if not, just take the left-hand path, and we'll be rejoining that shortly after Gaping Gill. Gaping Gill is then soon reached. Gaping Gill is one of the largest underground chambers in the UK. Fell Back runs into Gaping Gill pothole that we can see here and falls 98 metres to the floor of the chamber, so forming the highest unbroken waterfall in England.
As the sign says, and other signs say further down, keep yourself and any children or dogs well away from the top as it's unfenced and it's a sheer drop. Very sadly, people have died at Gaping Gill. With the icy ground today, I'm just staying up here by the fence.
If you do feel the need to explore it further, twice a year, Bradford Pothole Club for a week in May and Craven Pothole Club for a week in August, set up a winch above it, and you can be lowered down into it in a chair. More information about the charge, what to wear and when it takes place is available on their respective websites.
Head back around the side of the fence to head over and re-join the path that heads up onto Little Ingleborough. It is just over a kilometre now from here up to the summit of Little Ingleborough. On our website, the route of today's Ingleborough walk is set out on an Ordnance Survey map along with a GPS download for your phone or GPS device.
The link to our Walks4all website is down in the description below. If you want a little rest, take time to look around as the height gained affords views around to Simon Fell Breast that will form part of our return route, and then to the right of that is Pen-y-ghent which is the lowest of what are known as the Yorkshire Three Peaks with Whernside being the highest and Ingleborough the next highest.
Then, as we look further around, we look back down the path that we just walked up and then on the horizon, just coming into view, is the distinctive outline of Pendle Hill. The final part of the climb, now up Little Ingleborough, does get a little bit steeper. Over the cairns on Little Ingleborough, you can see the outline of the Lakeland Fells and then around to Morecambe Bay out to the west.
From Little Ingleborough, at 639 metres in height, looking further around today, you can still see the distinctive outline of Pendle Hill on the horizon. Then, further around from that, you can see Pen-y-ghent. Head back over to the path and then continue on towards the summit of Ingleborough itself.
If you enjoy these videos, please click the like button, subscribe to our channel and hit the notification bell so you know when any new walks have been uploaded. It is free to subscribe, and your likes and comments really do help our channel. As the path starts to flatten as the summit plateau is reached, you arrive at a cairn. We turn left at this cairn, pass by a second cairn and then head on towards the trig point. In bad visibility, you should always take a compass bearing from here to the summit and again, leaving the summit to pick up the downward path.
Many people get disoriented in bad visibility on the top of Ingleborough. At 724 metres high, it is the second highest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks behind Whernside. Ingleborough on a clear day provides views to the Lakeland Fells to the North, and as far away as the Snowdonia range to the South. Wandering its edges provides excellent views across to the Howgills, Whernside and the Ribblehead Viaduct. The name Ingleborough is believed to be derived from 'Ing' being the Old English for 'peak' and the Old English word 'Burh' meaning a fortified place.
The summit plateau of Ingleborough itself is encircled by stone remains containing the foundations of Iron Age huts believed to have been built by the Brigantes, the largest group of tribes in Iron Age Britain in the first century A.D. Near to the trig point on Ingleborough summit is a weather shelter very useful on a day like today with the wind chill, I'm sure it's taken the temperatures down to near a minus ten.
And very unlike me, I've even had to put on a second pair of gloves. Walking in a line from the trig past the weather shelter, we head along the sketchy path away from it, which quickly pulls in by the Northern edge of the summit plateau. In bad visibility, though, ensure you take a compass bearing before leaving the weather shelter.
Upon reaching the edge of the summit plateau, it reveals magnificent panoramic views across to the Ribblehead Viaduct, Whernside and the Howgills beyond. We continue along the edge of the summit plateau in roughly an easterly direction, passing cairns from time to time. Then, before the summit plateau starts to fall away ahead, over to the left slightly below, you can see a large boulder.
The path starts to head down here, diagonally left, to pass close by the left-hand side of the large boulder. As you start to descend, the path quickly becomes a lot more obvious and becomes flagged underfoot. As you look ahead, there are two gentlemen by the stone marker. The left-hand path here is the path up from the Old Hill and forms part of the Three Peaks route to reach the summit of Ingleborough.
The right-hand path is the one we'll be taking and again forms part of the Yorkshire Three Peaks path, but this time back to Horton. Again, in bad visibility, this marker is crucial to ensure you head off Ingleborough in the right direction. So we'll head off now down this right-hand path. The path today is very icy, given how frozen solid the ground is. We are now heading across Simon Fell Breast. If you look down from time to time, you can see some grooves in the stones and flags in the ground. I'm not sure if these were made by some heavy machinery that's been up there, or maybe grooves in recycled flagstones from old mill floors. But if anyone does know, please let me know in the comment section below.
If you stop to have a look around from time to time, you can now see Little Ingleborough and Ingleborough in a different profile. If you are new to hiking or just want ideas for what walking gear to wear and take on your walk, check out our kit list recommendations found in the description below. Eventually, you reach a wall stile. Pass through the small wooden gate built into it and head away from the wall along the path.
The path is now heading directly towards Pen-y-ghent again in the distance. If I haven't mentioned it before, just how cold it is today, you can see how many of the paths are just ice. Keep on the path as it slowly descends, heading down flagged sections and across wooden boards along the way. The path drops down and passes by these old ruins, which are an old shooting hut and are marked on the 1:25,000 map, if you need to find out where you are.
Pass through this next gate and then head straight on to where the path forks. The path forks by the wooden way marker, with the left-hand path heading towards Pen-y-ghent being the Three Peaks route that heads towards Sulber and then eventually on towards Horton in Ribblesdale. We're ignoring that, though.
We are going to take the right-hand path there. The grassy path pulls in briefly by a wall. If you stop and look around to the right, you can see Little Ingleborough, Ingleborough and then Simon Fell from yet another angle. There are many grassy paths like this in this area of the Dales. It's almost as if they have been mown for you.
The path now heads through an area of limestone. Over the limestone, you can see across to Pen-y-ghent. The Yorkshire Dales is home to some magnificent limestone landscapes and contains almost half of Britain's limestone pavements. Limestone allows water to trickle through it, which over time has shaped the extensive cave systems that lie in the many parts of the Yorkshire Dales.
At one point in the path passes the remains of a tumbled-down wall. Not long after that, we meet another path coming in from the side by a wooden way marker. We are going to turn right here and head on towards the cairn on the horizon. There is another path almost straight away on the left to Crummack, which could be an alternative route back, and you could also take in the Norber Erratics that way.
We will ignore that for today and just walk straight on. At another waymarker, the path splits. You can take either path here as they meet up a little further on. But as I want to visit the cairn you can see on the horizon, I'm going to take the left-hand path.
The main path here just bypasses the cairn to the left. But with all these mini tops, I always find something very satisfying about reaching them, no matter how small they are.
Here again, you can see Little Ingleborough, Ingleborough and Simon Fell behind the cairn on the horizon. From the cairn, head back down to, and turn right along the path that you were just on. The first lot trees that you can see ahead are those around Trow Gill that we walked through earlier.
If you took the right-hand path at the last path junction, that is the path here that's coming in from the right now to join back up with us. Head down to pass through the gate, then keep walking straight ahead towards the trees. Pass through the gate to enter Long Lane.
Not too far down the lane, there is a stile on the right. If you paid for entry into the Ingleborough Trail and want to return that way, the path from this stile leads back down onto Clapdale Drive. So you just turn left and head back down into the Trail. For now, we just continue straight on. If you have any thoughts about this walk or find any issues with any of the footpaths used, please share that with us in the comments below.
After about one mile and just before the last small climb of the day, if you look over to the left, you can see Robin Proctor's Scar, supposedly named after a local farmer who lived in Crummack. He would ride his horse every night down to the local inn. Many times he came back drunk and often fell asleep on the horse, and from time to time fell off it.
The horse walking the route he knew many times knew the way. Then one night, after getting very drunk, he came out of the inn and got on the wrong horse in bad weather. The horse wandered along the lanes and over the moors until eventually heading over the edge of the scar - Robin Proctor's Scar. Keep on now along the track, climbing the small hill.
As the path flattens, another lane comes in from the left. If you did change the ending of this walk and headed via Crummack and maybe Norber, this is the lane that you would come back along. We ignore this lane, though, and just follow our lane around to the right, following the bridleway sign. The track heads downhill for a few hundred metres before it reaches two tunnels, pass through the two tunnels, taking care as the ground is uneven, and again it's quite dark in the middle of the first one. If you look over to the right now, you can see you have arrived back at the church.
Follow the track back around the bend, and then upon meeting the road, turn left and head back along the road. Turn left back into the car park. As promised at the start of the walk, we will have a look now where you can eat and drink after you finish your walk. The first place is on the corner of the car park itself. The Lake House bar and kitchen is dog friendly and specialises in local real ales, small brewery craft ales and real cider.
It offers food all day long, including their speciality pizzas. I don't think they open every day of the week, though. If you exit the car park, turn left, and head towards the white building at the end of the road, you will quickly reach the Croft Cafe. It was closed when I passed, and it looked like it maybe hadn't been open recently.
I may be wrong, though. Take a look if you are there, and if you know any more, please let me know in the comments below. Just past that is the New Inn, which has accommodation and, I believe, is dog friendly. It serves brunch from 10 to 12, lunch from 12 until 3 and evening meals from 5 until 9. It serves coffees, teas, a range of ales and gins from around the world.
There are a few seats at the front and then a beer garden around the back. Next to the New Inn, not food and drink, but worth pointing out is the cave rescue organisation and Mountain Rescue post, should you ever need them. There's the sign that says dial 999, ask for the police. They will then alert the local mountain rescue team.
Heading back towards the car park is the market cross. The base is believed to date from around the time when Clapham was granted market status in 1201. Whereas the cross itself was erected in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. If you brought your own sandwiches, the bench in front of it is an excellent place just to sit and watch the water go by. The final place to eat and drink after the walk is the old Sawmill Cafe we passed near the start of the walk.
It's open 9:30 to 4:30 each day, except for a short period over Christmas. It is dog friendly, serves teas and coffees, has a small menu and cake bakes. It also has outside seating. Just before ending today's walk, we've put together a short fly-through created using the Ordnance Survey app, the link for which is in the description below, to show you where you've been and give the area a little more perspective.
After leaving the car park, we headed out of Clapham along Clapdale Lane. Then, on reaching Clapdale, we dropped down onto Clapdale Drive to then pass by Ingleborough Cave. Shortly after that, we walked through Trow Gill and then crossed over the wall to head on to Gaping Gill. From Gaping Gill, we headed on to Little Ingleborough, which afforded wide-ranging views from the cairn.
We then headed on towards the plateau summit of Ingleborough. We left Ingleborough heading down the Three Peaks path, taking the right-hand path at the marker and then headed across Simon Fell Breast. At the next path junction, we again took the right-hand fork to head along the nice grassy path that then led through the limestone.
On joining the next path, we turned right and followed it until we then joined Long Lane. We then followed this lane back to Clapham.
That ends our walk for today.
In the transcript of the video, when any mention is made of the 'description below', it refers to the description shown beneath the video on YouTube. If you wish to access any of that information, click 'watch on YouTube' on the video above, and the description will be there, on YouTube, just below the video.
