The Ascent of Pen-y-ghent

About trip

Distance: 6.5 miles, Minnimum Time: 3hrs, Difficulty: Hard, Description: While you're there: Visit the lively market town of Settle, to the south of Horton in Ribblesdale. If you’re there on a Tuesday, you’ll find its market in full swing, in front of the impressive arched Shambles building, with two storeys of shops and homes above them. Up the High Street is a large and ornate 17th-century house called The Folly, and scattered through the town are old houses with carved lintels showing when they were built and their builders’ initials. What to look out for: As you ascend Pen-y-ghent in the spring, you will notice patches of the attractive purple saxifrage growing along the hill’s distinctive ridges. Saxifrage means ‘stone-breaker’, and nearly all the members of the species live in rocky places, their roots penetrating into cracks between the stones to use the moisture trapped there. Purple saxifrage flowers the earliest of all the saxifrages and has five slightly-pointed petals of a delicate purple colour. The tiny flowers form dense clusters among the rocks. As its Latin name (saxifraga oppositifolia) suggests, its leaves sit opposite each other along its rather flat stem, which has a creeping habit. A characteristic plant of many high latitudes, the purple saxifrage is the official flower of Nunavut Territory in the very north of Canada. Where to eat and drink: The Pen-y-Ghent Café, as well as providing all its other services, does good, energy-giving food, specially geared to the needs of walkers. The village’s two pubs, the Crown and the Golden Lion, both offer meals and serve good Yorkshire ales. Directions: From the car park, turn right along the road, passing the Pen-y-ghent Café. This is the walkers’ centre for the area, selling a vast range of books and maps, and running a booking-in and -out service for those walking or climbing in the area. In 100yds (91m) beyond, turn left, on to a track, following the Pennine Way sign. Go through a gate to a junction of paths and fork left. Follow the walled track for about a mile (1.6km) to its end. (You could detour about 300yds/274m north from here to the huge hole of Hull Pot, which is also easily seen from the upper slopes. In wet weather a stream tumbles down its limestone crags into the depths.) At the end of the walled track turn right, following the Pen-yghent sign to a gate and stiles. Follow an obvious path across level moorland. After another gate, the path climbs again. At a large cairn below limestone crags, the path swings right to slant up a steeper slope. Continue in the same direction on the easier upper slopes until the path swings left to the summit at 2,277ft (694m). One of the famous ‘Three Peaks’ of the Dales (the others, Ingleborough and Whernside, are visible from here), Pen-y-ghent’s distinctive profile dominates the landscape. Its name, which is Celtic, means either ‘the hill on the plain’ or ‘the windy hill’. Both are appropriate. The ridges that stripe its sides are the result of different rock strata - millstone grit on top, softer shales beneath and, half-way up, a band of limestone. Cross the summit wall and turn right along the stony path, which soon descends very steeply, moving away from the wall at the steepest parts, which have some easy rock scrambling. After the descent you will reach two ladder stiles over a wall on your right. Cross one, following a sign to Brackenbottom. As you descend, the limestone quarry beyond Horton in Ribblesdale is clearly in view. Although National Park policies are weighted against quarry development, many workings often precede the designation of the Dales as a National Park. Descend steadily, with a continuous wall just to your right, crossing several intermediate walls. Reaching a farm, bear right through a gate and out through another gate to a road. Turn left and follow the road, bearing slightly right as another road joins from the left. Take the next turn right and descend to the main road. Cross and walk down the track opposite. Just before farm buildings, turn right on a short track. Cross stepping stones and keep straight on until the wall on the left ends, then go left over a cattle grid and down a track. Where the track bends left, keep straight ahead beside the stream to a footbridge. Cross this, then bear right across the field, keeping right of an isolated tree, to reach a larger footbridge across the River Ribble. You are now joining the Ribble Way, which runs beside the river for 70 miles (113km) from the Dales to the sea. For part of its length, north of Horton in Ribblesdale, it follows the same route as the Dales Way, another long distance footpath that goes the 80 miles (129km) from Ilkley in West Yorkshire to Bowness-on- Windermere in Cumbria. Cross the bridge and turn right along the river bank. The path follows the river pretty closely, with a slight deviation to cross a stream by a footbridge; there is unusual limestone deposition in the stream bed here. Return to the river bank and keep following it through a bend near houses. Climb steps to a footbridge and cross to return to the car park.