A Dales Weekend: Malham, Ribblehead and the Trough of Bowland

Editor's note

Wood Nook Caravan Park lies at Skirethorns near Threshfield, outside Skipton, one night, with Malham seven or eight kilometres off and twenty-one kilometres, twenty-six minutes, of driving to reach it. Malham Cove is a curved limestone cliff 80m high, left when the ice went, with a pavement of clints and grikes along its top; walk up to look at the face from the beck, then get onto the pavement. A mile east, Gordale Scar cuts into the hills as a gorge with waterfalls in its throat, and the path round from the village passes Janet's Foss, where the beck drops into a pool. Good in any season.

Editor's note

Orcaber Farm Caravan & Camping Park is at Austwick outside Settle, one night, six and a half kilometres from the day's ground and thirty-four kilometres — thirty-five minutes — from Malham. The Midland Railway drove the Settle–Carlisle line through some of the bleakest country in England in the 1870s: 73 miles, 14 tunnels, 22 viaducts, Ribblehead striding 24 arches over the moor. Stand under the arches, ride the line from Ribblehead station, or find the navvy camps and brickworks on Batty Moss below. Closure was fought off in 1989 and trains still run. Then the Trough of Bowland, the single road through an AONB where merlin and hen harrier breed; Dunsop Bridge lies near the geographic centre of Great Britain.