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Walk around Malham's geological wonders: Janet's Foss waterfall, Gordale Scar (100m high gorge) and Malham Cove (over 80m high and 300m wide) which was used in a scene from a Harry Potter movie.
Today's walk starts in the National Park Visitor Centre Car Park in Malham Village in the Yorkshire Dales. The walk is just under five miles long and takes, on average, just over 2 hours. The sign on the wall helpfully shows us what we will be walking around today, which is Janet's Foss and then onto Gordale Scar with its limestone cliffs over 100 metres high before returning via the stunning Malham Cove, which is over 80 metres high and was once the site of a waterfall higher than the Niagara Falls.
Stay watching until the end, though, to see the pubs and where you can eat and drink after the walk. Back at the visitor centre, head out towards the road. The National Park Centre itself is open most days from ten until five. Malham can get very busy, and the field opposite is sometimes opened up as an overflow car park. Turn left along the road now following the Malham Cove, Janet's Foss and Gordale Scar footpath sign.
Initially, walking by a church and a cafe, and then just before the Buck Inn, crossing over the road to the footpath sign to pass down the right-hand side of the Malham Smithy. Turn right along the gravel path once over the bridge, which is actually part of the Pennine Way, a 268-mile trail from Edale in the Derbyshire Peak District to Kirk Yetholm just inside the Scottish borders.
Through the first gate, follow the path now for a short section. The route for this walk can be seen on an Ordnance Survey map, and the route file downloaded from our Walks4all website. The link is down in the description below.
Pass through this next gate and then continue to walk along the gravelled footpath again, following the Janet's Foss sign. Keep continuing along the gravel path, passing through various wooden gates along the way.
If you want ideas of what to wear on the walk and what to take on the walk, check out the description below for our recommended kit list. This is a very popular walk, so if you prefer walks that are a little quieter, you may find it better to come either early in the morning or midweek. After one of the gates, the path is flagged again for a short section by the water.
After this next gate, again, continue along the gravel path, where shortly we will reach the National Trust sign for Janet's Foss.
Enter into the woods to head on towards Janet's Foss. Depending upon the time of the year, you may be hit by the smell of wild garlic or the beautiful carpet of bluebells in the spring.
Perhaps it's just me, but whenever I see rocks and trees combined, it does always make me think of the classic half man half biscuit line of what do petrified forests see to make them all so scared.
Over to the right on the floor is a wish tree. The tradition of wish trees, where coins are pressed into the bark of fallen trees, dates back hundreds of years, when it was believed that the offering would help cure an illness. There are divided lines of thought on this in the outdoor community, and you certainly shouldn't be putting coins into live trees.
Throughout the woods, you can hear the wonderful woodland birdsong, and in the areas around the water itself, you may also catch glimpses of dippers, pied wagtails and grey wagtails. Janet's Foss waterfall is now visible ahead.
Foss is the old Scandinavian name for a waterfall. According to legend, Janet (or Jennet), queen of the fairies, lived in a cave behind the waterfall. Heading away from the waterfall along the same path, there is an information board about Janet's Foss. Walk on past the information board, initially alongside the wall and then on up to arrive at a kissing gate by the road. Pass through the kissing gate and turn right along the lane following the sign for Gordale Scar.
You soon pass by a layby over an old bridge that is returned to when we've visited Gordale Scar.
For now though, just continue along the road to pass through the gate on the left. An information board by the gate informs you about Gordale Scar. Just head along the wide gravelled path. As you wander along the path, New Close Knotts and Gordale Beck, which is actually the water that formed the waterfall over Janet's Foss, are over to your left.
Around the final corner is Gordale Scar itself. The overhanging cliffs are often frequented by climbers. Over the last one and a half million years, Malham has been covered by three great sheets of ice. Each time the glaciers melted, the water and the moving rocks scoured away the rocks below it, leaving the gorge that we see today. The scar itself has been the subject of an 1818 sonnet by William Wordsworth was also painted by J.M.W. Turner by James Ward, which can be seen in Tate Britain.
There is actually a footpath on the left-hand side of the water that leads up onto Malham Tarn. That route will be explored in a future video walk. Because we're not doing that though today, we'll turn around and head back out towards the road. Pass through the gate and turn right along the lane and back over the bridge to the layby. Pass through the kissing gate and head upwards along the path following the Malham Cove one mile sign away from the road.
If you like this video, 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's free to subscribe, and likes and comments really help our channel. Pass through the kissing gate and then head on to the steps up in the corner of the field. Climb the steps and turn left again following the Malham Cove footpath sign. Through the next gate, keep on alongside the wall.
Over to the left, you can see back down into Malham. The path eventually arrives at a gate by the road. Through the gate, cross the road to the wall stile diagonally right. Head over the stile and follow the Malham Cove sign directly away from the wall. The grassy path pulls into the right hand side of a wall. Continue along which until you reach the footpath sign at the end.
Here we basically continue in the same direction, following the footpath sign to Malham Cove, a quarter of a mile. The limestone pavement above Malham Cove comes into view. Panning around from Malham Cove, you can see over to the left Malham, and on the horizon in the distance, you can see Pendle Hill. Continue down the wide grassy path down to and through either of the two gates in the wall ahead. Follow the Malham one and a quarter mile sign next to the wooden gates and head directly away from the wall.
The path itself isn't too obvious across the limestone pavement, but heads in almost a straight line, making sure you keep a good 40 to 50 yards away from the top of the cove. It is a sheer drop from the edge of the cove, so make sure you keep dogs and children well away from the edge.
Great care needs to be taken whilst walking across the limestone pavement as the ground is very uneven and the limestone can be very slippery, especially when wet. The limestone pavement, similar to Gordale Scar, has been formed by the movement of glaciers over time. What you are left with today are these blocks of limestone that form the limestone pavement.
The blocks of limestone themselves are called clints, and the gaps or fissures in between them are called grikes. The underlying flora around here is generally ferns in the grikes, interspersed with any lime-loving flowers that have managed to take hold. For all you film buffs out there, a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One film was actually filmed on this limestone pavement, where Harry and Hermione set up a magical tent.
After making your way across the limestone pavement, head onto the wall, which now lies ahead. Head down to the gap in the wall, next to which there is an information board about the limestone pavement. From here head through the gap and through the wooden style to start heading down the manmade steps. Stopping from time to time to admire the view across the cove. Pass through the gates. Where the path splits, Malham is to the right.
But first, you can take the left-hand path to get near the cove. How far you want to explore is really up to you. Malham Cove is over 80 metres high and was once the site of a waterfall higher than the Niagara Falls. For today's walk, we're not going to get any closer to Malham Cove than this gate.
We're going to turn around now and head back along the path alongside Malham Beck. As you head away, it is worth returning your gaze, though to Malham Cove, as you get an ever-expanding view of its sheer size. With the very heavy rainfall we had in December 2015, Malham Cove briefly became the tallest, unbroken waterfall in England again, a record held by his not too distant neighbour Hardraw Force up in Wensleydale. Pass through the gates and along the track. Many bird watchers often come to Malham Cove, which has been home to peregrine falcons since 1993.
Green woodpeckers, redstarts and cliff nesting house martins can also be seen from time to time. Head uphill now to pass through the kissing gate in the wall into the National Trust's Malham Cove fields. This path then just continues on upwards towards the road. Pass through the gate and then on to a second one, which brings you out onto the road.
Turn left onto the road towards Malham, where you initially pass a campsite on the left-hand side. Head along the road until you reach a sign for Beck Hall, which is on the left.
We're not too far from the car park now, so this is the first few places you can stop for something to eat and drink. Beck Hall, originally built as a yeoman's cottage in 1705, is dog friendly, serves meals, drinks and afternoon tea, and even some streamside dining. From here, you can continue along the road, or you can take the gate on the left to go through on the permissible woodland route for a couple of hundred metres running parallel to the road. On exiting the gate, you can turn right back on the road that heads around to the car park.
Or, as the sign opposite says, you can detour left to visit the Lister Arms, which is just over the bridge. The Lister Arms is again dog friendly, serves food and drink, and I've just noticed the poster on the wall that it was awarded the winner of Yorkshire's favourite pub 2019. Unfortunately, being early and the pub not being open, I can't really comment on the ale selection today.
Heading a few yards away from the Lister Arms and onto and over the bridge, you can also see ahead the Buck Inn. The Buck Inn dates from around 1874 and was built on the site of an old coaching inn. Again, the Buck Inn is dog-friendly and serves meals and drinks.
After passing the Buck Inn and before you reach the car park, you also pass the Old Barn tearoom, which again serves a range of food and drinks.
Just before ending today's walk, we've put together a short fly-through using the Ordnance Survey app, the link for which is in the description below, to show you where you've been and to give the area more perspective.
We initially turned left out of the car park and headed over the bridge and then along the gravelled and flagged footpath. We followed the stream and entered the woods, at the end of which was Janet's Foss. We then followed the road and then the gravel path to reach Gordale Scar. Reversing that part of the route to the layby, we then turned right to head over the fields before dropping down onto the limestone pavement above Malham Cove.
Having crossed the limestone pavement, we headed down the steps to have a look at the bottom of the cover. We then followed the flagged and gravel path back to the road and followed the road back into Malham. Returning to the walk, around the corner, you'll find yourself back in the National Park Centre car park, which is the end of the walk for today.
