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This video shows a circular walk from Clapham which affords wonderful views of Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent. It heads across the limestone pavements of Thieves Moss, then on to Moughton Scars before the wonderfully shaped Norber Erratics. 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 Thieves Moss, Moughton Scars and Norber Erratics from Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. Before we start, let's have a look at where we are walking today.
We leave Clapham, taking a short climb up a walled lane. We then head left to walk along Long Lane, a track which forms part of the Pennine Bridleway. A cairn shortly after leaving Long Lane affords views of Ingleborough and Little Ingleborough.
This wonderful 360 panorama also takes in Pen-y-ghent on the horizon in the direction of Moughton Scars. We continue walking along the Pennine Bridleway, where Thieves Moss and Moughton Scars can be seen over to the right.
We wend our way through the limestone pavement and outcrops of Thieves Moss to arrive at Beggar's Stile. From here, we head across Crummack Dale to arrive at Norber, where many unusual Erratics can be found. Erratics are rocks that have been transported by glaciers and the movement of ice and are usually a different composition to the underlying bedrock on which they came to rest.
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 in the Yorkshire Dales, we leave the car park by passing by the side of the toilets and then passing by the Lake House bar and kitchen. We then turn right onto the road.
St James Church was originally built in 1829 before being destroyed in the Battle of Britain in 1940. The church was rebuilt and reopened in 1958. With St James Church in front of us, we turn right off this road to head along the track that bends around to the left. Then shortly afterwards, pass through two tunnels. Watch your footing through these two short tunnels, as the ground is a little uneven in places.
We then walk up the walled track. As the track flattens, it splits. The track straight on here goes to Austwick and forms part of our return route. For now, though, we just turn left to walk down Long Lane. Long Lane initially descends, affording views to the right of Robin Proctor's scar.
The walled Long Lane is just over a mile long. 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.
From time to time, stop just to look around to see the additional views that the small height gain affords us. Pass through the gate. Over to the left here, you can see the entrance to Ingleborough Caves. If you check out our Ingleborough walk from Clapham, we do walk past the entrance of the cave.
If you have any thoughts about this walk or find any issues with any of the footpaths used, please share that with us down in the comments below.
Just before the end of Long Lane, over a stile that leads down onto Clapdale Drive below, you can see the entrance to Trow Gill. Keep on along Long Lane until you reach a gate. Pass through the gate.
We turn right once through the gate to walk along the grassy path in the direction of the cairn visible on the horizon.
Every so often, especially in the southern end of the Yorkshire Dales, you end up walking through some limestone. Just before passing through this next gate, if you look over to the left now, you get a good view of Ingleborough. Looking around, you can see the top of Trow Gill and the grassy path that we just walked up. Pass through the gate.
Continue ahead, walking along the grassy path. In a short distance, the path splits. They rejoin a little further on, so it doesn't really matter which you take. Just before the wooden way marker, the path splits again. Take the right-hand path here as you want to head by the cairn ahead on top of the hill. The paths do rejoin further on.
If you want to visit the cairn, divert left a short distance off the main path. Straight ahead, now the silhouetted outline of Pen-y-ghent comes into view on the horizon. Pen-y-ghent, along with Whernside and Ingleborough, make up what is known as the Yorkshire Three Peaks, a 24-mile round trip with over 1500 metres of climbing. From the cairn, Ingleborough and Little Ingleborough can be seen.
This wonderful 360-degree panorama also takes in Pen-y-ghent on the horizon in the direction of Moughton Scars. From the cairn, head back down to and turn left along the grassy path we were just on. Ignore the path coming in from the right here. A short distance further on, the path splits with Pen-y-ghent again directly ahead.
We are going to take the left-hand fork here towards the man in the distance, but if you wanted to cut the walk short and miss Thieves Moss and Moughton Scars, the path to the right heads down the 600 metres or so to Crummack and you could re-join our walk there. I'll point that out when I get there. Looking in that direction, you can see Pendle Hill on the horizon. Taking the left-hand fork, we just continue along the grassy path.
At the wooden way marker, we are going to continue straight on. The path from the left here is the left-hand path split we left earlier, just before the cairn. For a short diversion, heading up behind the way marker provides you with a superb view over the limestone pavement towards Ingleborough. Head back down to Waymarker and turn left heading on in the same direction.
A little further on, just before the next wooden Waymarker, there is another path off to the right. This again heads down to Crummack and meets the other path. The path to the left, just beyond the Waymarker, forms part of our return route on our Ingleborough walk from Clapham video.
Ignore that and just continue along that wide grassy path generally in the direction of Pen-y-ghent again ahead. On our website, the route of today's Thieves Moss, Moughton Scars and Norber Erratics walk from Clapham is set out on an Ordnance Survey map along with a GPS download for your phone or GPS device. The link for our Walks4all website is down in the description below.
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 in the description below. At the next Waymarker, walk straight on. Over to the right, the limestone pavements of Thieves Moss and Moughton Scars are now more in view in front of Pen-y-ghent. The grassy path pulls in alongside a wall over which you now have an even better view of the limestone pavement.
When you reach the wall with the stile and gate ahead, turn right here to pass through the small wooden gate in the right-hand wall before heading down to the limestone pavement. Take time to enjoy the views. Pendle Hill is visible on the horizon, and the top of Moughton Scars are visible at the far end of the limestone pavement.
We were going to drop down onto Thieves Moss and then turn right to head through the limestone pavement to Beggar's Stile. There is another path before that that skirts more of the limestone that you could use if you wish. Head down now onto Thieves Moss. Pass over the first path, and then, a short distance afterwards, there's a sketchy path that heads off to the right. Turn right here to start heading through the limestone.
The path does become a little more obvious after a short distance. It is believed that Thieves Moss got its name as it was once used as a showground for the sale of stolen sheep and cattle in the area. The limestone pavement itself was formed over many years by the scouring action of glaciers, which, on their retreat, revealed a flat limestone landscape.
Then, over the years, water and chemical weathering have created, widened and deepened cracks to form fissures. Gaps in the limestone, which are known as Grykes. The exposed blocks of limestone left behind are called Clints. Be careful with your footing when walking through the limestone; it can be very slippery when wet. We meet another path here coming through the limestone. Just turn right and keep on the grassy path.
After a few hundred metres, you arrive at Beggar's Stile. Over the stile, you can see down towards Crummack over Crummack Dale, the distinctive outline of Pendle Hill on the horizon. I pointed out earlier the shortcut that you could have taken over to Crummack. Some of you with dogs may well want to do this because this isn't the most dog-friendly of stiles.
It doesn't look too bad from this side, but when you pass over the stile, it is about a seven to eight-foot drop onto stones. We head away from the stile now across the fields, basically just keep on a straight line. Looking behind now, you get a much better view of Moughton Scars. Eventually, the path pulls in by a wall. Pass over the stile in the wall.
From the stile, if you look to the right, you can see two footpaths merging. These are the two footpaths I mentioned earlier in the walk. If you wanted to shorten the walk and miss Thieves Moss, just cut straight across to Crummack. Keep on now by the side of the wall. Those two footpaths join at this wooden footpath sign. Pass through this first gate and then onto and through the second wooden gate, and then head along to and then start heading down the road.
The first part of this track forms part of the Dales Highway, a 90-mile-long walk starting in Saltaire in West Yorkshire and ending at Moot Hall in Appleby, in Westmoreland in Cumbria. Pass over the cattle grid or through the gate at the side of it. At a track junction, we do carry straight on. The track off to the left here heads towards Wharf and then on towards Helwith Bridge.
Behind you can see Moughton Scars and the track that we just walked down. After a while at a Thieves Moss footpath sign, the road becomes tarmacked underfoot. Then, as the road starts to descend a little more steeply, there are two footpath signs, one on either side of the road. We are going to turn right here and follow the right-hand sign.
The left footpath here heads half a mile or so over to Austwick. Head up to and then pass over the stone stile built into the wall following the footpath sign to Norber. Follow the path now along the side of the wall. The footpath passes through Nappa Scars. Head through the gap in the wall and then diagonally across the small field towards the stone stile in the wall ahead. Over the stone stile, you get your first sight of the Erratics and what lies ahead.
Once over the stile, turn left and head down the side of the wall. At the bottom of this next short, steep section, take the right-hand fork in the path to head over to the four-way signpost. At the signpost, we are going to take a short diversion up the hill to Norber. The path heads up and then bends around to the right to pass by this first real erratic.
Just walk ahead now and take time to explore the area, wander around the many different-shaped erratics here at Norber. There are well over 100 Norber Erratics, and they are probably the best examples of erratics in the UK. Erratics are rocks that have been transported by glaciers and the movement of ice and then deposited at a new location.
They are usually a different composition from the underlying bedrock on which they came to rest, but sometimes it can be the same stone. The limestone pedestal here is now protected from further erosion by the umbrella effect of the overhanging stone on top. You do have to wonder how some of the pedestals hold that much weight above them. If you look over the wall at the far end of the erratic field, you can see back up to Moughton Scars where we walked down from earlier.
From here, we turn around and head back down through the erratics and then back down to the four-way signpost we left earlier on time. On reaching the signpost, we turn right following the footpath to the Clapham sign. The path heads down to and pulls in just the right-hand side of the wall. Pass over the stile and keep straight on. Up to the right here is Robin Proctor's Scar. The path follows and then leaves the wall as the wall bends around to the left and then heads across the field just to the left of the two large rocks.
Pass over the wall stile just to the left of the gate in the wall, and then turn right along the lane. Over to the right is Robin Proctor's Scar with supposedly the scar being named after a local farmer who lived in Crummackdale. 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, he went over the edge of the scar - Robin Proctor's Scar. The lane we are walking along is Thwaites Lane.
It forms part of the Pennine Bridleway and 'A Pennine Journey'. The Pennine Bridleway is a 205-mile trail from Middleton Top in Derbyshire to Ravenstonedale in Cumbria, with its full length officially opened in 2012 by Martin Clunes, the then-president of the British Horse Society. Whereas A Pennine Journey is a 247-mile trail starting and ending in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. It is based on a 211-mile walk Alfred Wainwright undertook in 1938 and then later wrote a book about it called 'The Pennine Journey - The Story of a Long Walk in 1938'.
The book was eventually published in 1986. Over to the right now, again, Ingleborough is in view. And now, to the right, you can see Long Lane, the track that we walked earlier. On meeting the track junction, this time we veer slightly left and continue straight on. You may notice on the floor here a new Pennine Way Bridleway sign to Austwick and Clapham, which will be replacing the old sign we saw at the start of the walk.
Walk on now down the walled track back into Clapham. On reaching the road, we turn left to head back down towards the car park. Before ending today's walk, let's have a look, as promised, at where we can eat and drink nearby.
The first place is on the corner of the car park itself. The Lake House bar and kitchen is dog friendly, specialising in local real ale, small brewery craft ales and real cider. It offers food all day long, including their speciality pizzas. I've just noticed a new sign on their wall since the last time I was here, in Clapham Village.
I don't think they open every day of the week. Then, if you exit the car park and turn left and head towards the white building at the end of the road, you quickly reach the Croft Cafe. It was closed when I passed, and it looked like it 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 a Cave Rescue Organisation and Mountain Rescue post. Should you ever need them, as the sign says, dial 999, ask for the police, who will then alert the local mountain rescue team. Heading back towards the car park, the market cross is the base, which is believed to date from around the time when Clapton 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. Just over the bridge, if you didn't bring your own food, is the Clapham Village store. Just to the left of the bridge, when you're heading back over it, you can see the fish water fountain erected in 1897 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
The final place to eat and drink is the Old Saw Mill Cafe. Head away from the car park as we did at the start of the walk to the church, but this time turn left in front of the church and along to meet the road junction. On meeting the road, turn right, where shortly you'll get a view across to Clapham Falls, a man-made falls constructed in 1837 as part of the remodelling of the Ingleborough estate.
A few yards further on, you reach the Old Saw Mill Cafe. It is 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 bakes cakes. 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.
We started in the pay and display car park in Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. We turned right out of that and then right again in front of the church before turning left to head along Long Lane. We followed that for just over a mile before turning right to head along the grassy Pennine Bridleway, which we followed along to Thieves Moss. We turned right to drop down onto Thieves Moss and then through Moughton Scars, and walked down through Crummack Dale.
As mentioned earlier in the walk, if you wanted to shorten the route to miss Moughton Scars and Thieves Moss over to the right, you can see our outward path that you can divert off to drop down to this farm at Crummack. We continued on down the road before turning right to head over to Napa Scars and then on to Norber.
We then returned to the four-way signpost, this time turning right to head back along the walled lane back down into 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.
