On the first day of a two-day walk in the Yorkshire Dales, I walked from Ribblehead to the summit of Whernside and then down the length of Whernside’s superlative SW ridge.

I was studying a map of the Yorkshire Dales a couple of years ago, looking for ideas for walks, when the SW ridge of Whernside caught my eye. This rounded ridge gradually descends from the summit of Whernside all the way to the outskirts of the village of Ingleton. It runs along one side of a small dale opposite the imposing mass of Ingleborough. When I did the Yorkshire Three Peaks many years ago, I had walked the start of this ridge before dropping off it after about a kilometre to descend to Chapel-le-Dale. If I had carried on going, I would have had miles of gentle walking over the moors and through the karst landscape of the Dales, all the while with sweeping views across the dales. I found the idea of walking along this ridge compelling, but I put this idea to one side because the most obvious ways to do it were either a long loop walk, or a linear walk with a car at each end, and these were not appealing. Last year, another way to walk the length of the SW ridge of Whernside occurred to me. 

Continue reading “Along and Around Whernside – Part One”