Yorkshire Walks

Entering the farmyard from the YDNP car park

Rusted iron railings and kissing gate

The first half of the route towards Austwick was quite evident: the path, at first generously bespattered with fresh bovine ordure, ran through fields and alongside rusted iron fences with a series of kissing gates suited to travellers of limited girth.

As forecast, the weather today was ideal for walking. Our route began and ended at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Car Park in Clapham (SD745692). A signpost in the corner to the right of the entrance led us immediately into a concreted farmyard where we turned left towards a pedestrian gate and a path and soon to a second gate.

The first gate after the car park

Into open pasture with drystone walls enroute for Austwick

Over a series of gated stiles

A stile at SD760686 was eventually spotted and used. There was some evidence of Middle-Ages lynchet terracing on approaching Austwick where a signpost inaccurately informed that we had travelled 2 miles from Clapham - a contrast from two estimations of 11/3 and 11/2 miles displayed in Clapham itself.

The way continued over grass where the fences gave way to dry stone walls and the kissing gates to gated stiles more easily climbed than Annapurna. Here way marks would have been appreciated.

Approaching Austwick through terraced fields

On reaching the road in Austwick

Route through Austwick

Canine roadside refreshments in Austwick

Beyond the school at SD 769686 we turned left up Townhead Lane.

In Austwick we turned left to walk up through the quiet little village.

Old chapel now a house in Austwick

Turning at SD769686 into Townhead Lane

Leaving Townhead Lane by a broken ladder stile

We followed the wall to a stile by a false gate

We then followed the wall around to the left

We continued to follow the wall on our left until at SD766697 by a large boulder a glance over our right shoulders revealed a path leading upwards. Very soon a 4-way signpost was reached: Clapham, Austwick, Norber and Crummack.

At SD769690 we crossed over a broken ladder stile on the left into pasture and proceeded via two further ladder stiles to Thwaite Lane, a gravel track where we turned right. At SD768692 a gate and stile on the left led into a pasture with a path leading towards an open farm gate. Here we ignored the gate and turned right to follow a stone wall towards an apparent "gate" and an actual stile.

Exiting from a field into Thwaite Lane

A useful signpost; Claspham, Austwick, Norber, Crummack

An erratic perched on limestone pedestals

A fissured erratic

A perched erratic

An erratic has been transported to its current location long ago by incorporation within a glacier which has now melted. Erratics are quite common but the Norber erratics are especially interesting because of their large number and because the rock on which they have been deposited is limestone. As limestone weathers relatively quickly, these erratics have lost much of their supporting bedrock and sometimes remain perched only on pedestals of surviving limestone.

By now the first of the erratics was within sight and by heading towards Norber we were soon within a huge rough pasture where scores of the "foreign" rocks have lain since the end of the last ice age - about 13 millennia ago - following their journeys within a glacier from Crummockdale, a kilometre distant. Erratic is a geological term for a rock that is out of place i.e. its age and composition differ from those of the local bedrock.

An erratic balanced on a smaller limestone plinth

An erratic supports life

An erratic with plenty of support

A large area strewn with countless erratics on underlying limestone

Beginning of the return to Clapham

Robin Proctor's Scar at Norber

As we passed by Robin Proctor's Scar on our right some rock climbers were practicing their skills on its face.

After lunch and a period exploring the erratics we returned to the signpost and headed for Clapham via a ladder stile.

Robin Proctor's Scar at Norber

Heading back to Thwaite Lane from Norber

Looking back at the route down from Norber

The route via SD762695 is quite evident and a stile and gate were reached at SD760691 where we turned right on to Thwaite Lane.

Returning to Thwaite Lane

The surface of Thwaite Lane gradually deteriorates

St James Church, Clapham

The tunnels were introduced in bygone times by owners of Ingleborough Hall supposedly to protect their own privacy. We emerged from the tunnels by the parish Church of St James and turned left, by a moss-encrusted monument of recent origin, to access the car park. - Ray Brown

Near to Clapham the surface deteriorated gradually and steepened downhill as we entered woodland with several notices advising cyclists to dismount. Thwaite Lane then surprisingly passes through a couple of tunnels.

Thwaite Lane passes through a couple of tunnels near Clapham

We turned left at this monument to return to the car park