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Category: Yorkshire

A Hole New Adventure 3

A Hole New Adventure 3

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Day 3.

Staying in Settle meant that we were on the Settle to Carlisle Railway which is well known for its scenery and for the Ribblehead Viaduct which it crosses so we thought we would pay the viaduct a visit.

We drove over to Ribblehead and found some easy parking.

Building this impressive viaduct started in 1869 and required a workforce of 2300. The railway across it opened in 1876.

Nearby we found this.

Finding it wasn’t accidental. I came here when I was a young caver and exploring it required crawling on hands and knees in the stream. Unfortunately, after only a relatively short distance the roof came down to floor level. End of exloration.

After this we thought that we should find a real cave so we drove a few miles towards Ingleton to White Scar Cave. This cave is open as a show cave and tours run throughout the day.

It is an active cave with a stream running through it and, consequently, is subject to flooding. In 2016 the water pouring out of the cave destroyed the buildings outside together with the car park. Everything has since been rebuilt. In bad weather check opening times in case it has to be closed.

Access to the cave is via a tunnel cut through the rock. Part the way along this tunnel it shows part of the cave passge that the original explorers had to traverse laying flat. Not a comfortable experience.

The entrance tunnel meets the show cave proper in the active stream passage.

If you were a caver you’d have to walk along this passage with your feet in the stream but, luckily for you, there’s a strong, well constructed, metal walkway so that you can keep your feet dry and admire the spectacular underground scenery.

There is plenty to admire including extraordinary formations like this.

There is a lot to see in this cave and the normal tour takes over an hour.

Finally, after climbing a stairway through a man-made tunnel, you will reach the Battlefield Cavern. This is the latest part of the show cave.

After that adventure we made our way back to the cave entrance and went back to our hotel.

Rock and Water – Day 3

Rock and Water – Day 3

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Today was our first full day in the area and we set off eastwards into the Yorkshire Dales towards Keld and Muker along the B6270 road. Don't take the 'B' classification as an indication that it is a reasonably fast road because this road is only one car wide, bends left and right and goes up and down all over the place. Luckily there are places where one can squeeze past other vehicles although we saw few of those (vehicles not passing places) but the scenery is really wonderfully dramatic.

Looking at the road in the picture above you will see that it disappears over a hump in the distance and then, if you look carefully, you can see the road re-appear over to the left about halfway between this section that we're on and the left edge of the picture. It really does wander all over the place. Ocasionally one can find an area big enough to pull off and stop which is what we did around Hollow Mill Cross by Tailbrigg Hill and look what we found – another limestone pavement.

One of the interesting features of this limestone area is that the soil is mostly acid which seems to be a contradiction on limestone but there is so much rain up here that all the calcareous content has been leached from the soil.

This pavement is very well weathered and you'll notice the little tarn (lake) in the distance which is only there because the acid soil is relatively impermeable and just to the right of that tarn is the tiny figure of Amanda who is just about to make an interesting discovery.

She is heading for that row of humps to the right of her figure and this is what she found.

It's what is known as a Shake Hole. These are often 60-80 feet deep or more and can be caused by the collapse of part of a cave system below, fracturing the limestone, and allowing water to seep down and dissolve the limestone to form these shafts.

We decided to move on and eventually came down off the high ground into a very small village called Keld. We found a place to park and walked down to the river where there were a couple of nice little waterfalls.

You may have noticed that on this trip the weather is rather changeable but it hasn't actually rained yet and we have had a little sun. We moved on to Thwaite where we had lunch and I now have a little tale to tell.

We had been to this area before, about 35 years ago, and on one night we stayed in a small pub in a small village and Amanda and I couldn't remember exactly where it was but she was keen to try and find out.

She remembered that it was called either The Queens Head or The Kings Head and we both remembered that it was run by an old lady. We both remembered that it was next to a small river which was thundering along because of all the rain at that time (nothing much changes does it?).

One of the people where we had lunch though, after hearing our tale, suggested that it may well have been in Gunnerside a few miles further along the road. So after lunch we set off and very soon caught a glimpse of Gunnerside.

Arriving in the village we soon found the Kings Head. This view of it is across the bridge over a small river. We went in and spoke to the people who now run it and had a brief look around and Amanda thinks that this could be the one. So one mystery solved.

Our next destination was the Buttertubs up on the Buttertubs Pass at around 1700 feet. Now that was an interesting road with a steep drop on one side and, again, rather narrow. There was a flimsy looking barrier along the edge which I remember wasn't there when we came this way before. They do seem to pander to motoring wimps these days.

We arrived at the Buttertubs and found space (there isn't much) to park. It was also raining and I was trying to take photographs and keep the camera dry. This is one of those Buttertubs.

Needless to say you wouldn't want to fall into one of those and here is Amanda doing her "let's look down a big deep hole but don't go too near the edge" thing by another of the Buttertubs.

Where does the name come from? It is said that the name of the potholes came from the times when farmers would rest there on their way to market. During hot weather they would lower the butter that they had produced into the potholes to keep it cool. I can't say I'm thoroughly convinced by that but I can't offer an alternative explanation.

We decided to call it a day at this point, having seen an awful lot of rock and water, and returned via that same hairy road to our hotel. More tomorrow.

 

Here today, not gone tomorrow

Here today, not gone tomorrow

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Sunday 12th September

After 4 hours and 210 miles we arrived at two o'clock this afternoon. Most of the journey was in sunshine but it started raining just as we arrived. Luckily it didn't stay that way.

Where are we?

Monday 13th September

We bin 'ere:

and 'ere:

Cloudy all day today and it rained all the way from the Minster to the Railway Museum.

Well done Old Guy – you got it in one. It may be York rain Tudor but it's just as wet as any other.  Annecy we'll give you the low down later.

Tuesday 14th September

More tramping today. This trip is turning into a Shambles.

Eventually we got the hump!

We had our longest, hardest, wettest shower this morning. We'll be leaving tomorrow.

Wednesday 15th September

Weather cool grey and very windy. Left York at 9:30 AM home by 1:30 PM. :bawl:

Yorkshire and the Great North Road

Yorkshire and the Great North Road

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As I said in my posting entitled ‘Mid-summer Madness’ I went up to the North Yorkshire Moors on Friday 27th July and returned on Thursday 2nd August.

I went via the M11, A14, the A1 (The Great North Road), A168 and the A19 and the drive up was moderately awful. The traffic from near the end of the M11 until the junction with the western leg of the A14 was very dense which slowed everything down. Then, once on the A1, it seemed that there was a two and a half mile traffic queue at every roundabout on the A1 and there are 4 or five on that stretch. After I eventually turned off on to the A168/A19 I though that my troubles were over but, no, roadworks on the A19 caused yet another queue.

The journey took 7 hours instead of 5 or less – not a good start.

I did eventually arrive at Baysdale Abbey where I was staying and before you get excited let me explain that in spite of its name it is not an abbey. There was once an abbey there but it has long gone.

Baysdale Abbey is the long building that looks a bit like a military barracks, rather plain outside but comfortable enough inside and sleeps 17. The setting though is very nice. One has to drive up a single track road that winds up to the top of the moors and back down again into Baysdale. That road is the only entrance and exit.

There weren’t actually 17 of us but only 14 and that was quite enough. There was a small beck (stream) running past and fish could be seen in the clear water. Footpaths radiated out from Baysdale and up about 600 feet onto the moors above.

My first trip out was the next day, Saturday, to Robin Hood’s Bay about 6 miles south along the coast from Whitby. We didn’t go straight to Robin Hood’s Bay but headed to Boggle Hole where we intended to park and then walk along the cliff top to Robin Hood’s Bay.

Robin Hood’s Bay is the name for both the bay itself and also the little village near the top of the bay. The snag with this walk is that the car park at Boggle Hole is level with the top of the cliffs and one has then to walk down the lane to sea level and then climb steeply back to the top of the cliffs again. At the Robin Hood’s Bay end one has to go back down to sea level again. Ah well it’s good exercise!

This view is from the top of the village, yes that’s another climb, looking back towards Boggle Hole with Ravenscar on the headland in the distance.

The village has some really picturesque cobbled narrow back lanes which vehicles could not possibly access.

The following day, Sunday, we all went for a round-trip walk onto the moors with quite a lot of stopping and looking. It was only 4 miles, but through dramatic moorland scenery, and we arrived back in time for a late lunch.

On Monday we all went to Whitby which is about 10 miles along the coast from Staithes. Whitby is arranged around the mouth of the River Esk so not only does it have river scenes but also coastal scenes.

Tuesday I went with my younger brother to Staithes on the coast to the east. My first visit to Staithes was about 50 years ago when one could drive down the steep, cobbled village street and park by the roadside. There were also a few elderly women still wearing traditional local dress. I re-visited about 6 years later and not much had changed. Tourism in Staithes was unheard of at that time.

Things have changed a bit since then but the village is just as quaint and charming although the traditional dress is no longer to be seen. The only people permitted to drive down into the village are people who need access such as residents, delivery vehicles, etcetera and there is a large car park at the top of the hill where visitors must park.

On Wednesday we all went back to Robin Hood’s bay via Boggle Hole because some of the group missed the first trip and the following day I returned home.

The drive back was not as bad as the drive up but there was one seven and a half mile queue at one point which delayed me by about 45 minutes.

New pages of the places I visited together with photographs will appear on the web site in due course.