Region 35B The Central Pennines

the two-thousanders

Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent

These fine hills are known collectively as the Yorkshire Three Peaks. The ascent of all three in one long walk is a traditional challenge which is far more worthwhile than that now usually referred to as the Three Peaks Challenge which involves climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in a single day. This requires the use of a vehicle and by implication some fast driving. The Yorkshire Three Peaks walk is a circular walk and no driving is required; one can even arrive at the start on the Settle to Carlisle railway. The traditional starting point is Horton in Ribblesdale where one may 'sign in' at the start and purchase a suitable souvenir on completion. The circuit could also be started at Chapel le Dale or at Ribblehead which is where we began, thus getting the hardest climb and the highest hill done at the start. Although we unfortunately kept few records of our walks in the past this one is the exception as we have written into our copy of Wainwright's Walks in Limestone Country that we started at 8.06 and finished at 18.25 on 23/6/73. The time taken on the annual fell race is around two and a half hours!

Great Knoutberry Hill

Great Knoutberry Hill is an easy but rather uninspiring fell. It is being promoted as a viewpoint and a marked permissive route runs up from the bridleway which skirts the western flanks and then turns southwards along the county boundary to the point where the bridleway from Dentdale in Cumbria becomes an unclassified green lane running down into Widdale in Yorkshire. The first picture shows the summit with Wild Boar Fell in the distance. The second is taken from the bridleway looking down into Dentdale. The peak on the right is Aye Gill Pike. Further away are Calf Top on the left and in the far distance the Howgills.

Great Whernside

Although lower than Whernside (which is now the highest hill in Yorkshire since county reorganisation gave Mickle Fell to County Durham) the Great is perhaps justified on account of the great bulk of this hill. Of course we had climbed it many years before acquiring the Marilyn list since it is well over 2000 feet high. It made little impression although it is almost certain that we came up by one of the shorter approaches from the west or the north.

In July 2000 we climbed it again, this time taking about the toughest possible approach in order to include 3 of Michael Dewey's 500m hills in our circuit. From Scar House reservoir we climbed up onto Dead Mans Hill, the start of the walk being deceptively easy up the track to a disused quarry. Soon we were struggling through bog and tussocky grass to our first flat indeterminate summit.
Little Whernside ahead looked decidedly more alluring but the flat summit ridge proved to be very difficult going with several awkwardly wet peat hags to be circumvented despite relatively dry recent weather. There is a cairn somewhere near the very vague summit. Walking improved as we climbed onto the vast summit plateau of Great Whernside. The trig pillar and a very large cairn lie on the western edge and only the most demented peak bagger might worry that this might not be quite the highest point.
We now followed the boundary fence with just the suspicion of a track and perhaps a little less bog than we had feared. From Sandy Gate we made a boggy tussocky beeline for the trig point on Meugher, crossing several groughs en route. The descent was not pleasant until we veered right to Acoras Scar overlooking the attractive gorge of Backstean Gill. A final field of particularly awful tussocks was almost the last straw before joining a good track, soon left to climb over the ridge back to the reservoir after a tough 11 hour circuit.
The first picture shows the great bulk of Great Whernside seen from Scar House reservoir and the second shows the summit cairn looking west.


panorama westwards from Great Whernside - click on the image for a larger version

Buckden Pike

Like Great Whernside we had climbed Buckden Pike many years ago. Indeed my very vague recollection was that we had combined the 2 hills in one walk. Although they are neighbours these rolling moors mean that the traverse from one to the other is rough and long.

Anyway on our return visit we wanted Naughtberry Hill as well, reached by the Wasset Fell Road from Newbiggin This track is very rough in its lower reaches but becomes very pleasant, green and grassy when it reaches the open fell, finally petering out beyond the old mine workings. Then there are some boggy sections but the boundary line is clear although the wall or fence has disappeared. The summit is less clear being an indeterminate tussock on the long flat ridge.
Here Rowland turned back and kindly brought the car round while I traversed the ridge to Buckden Pike, mainly to get some pictures and a description for this web page. The going turned out less unpleasant than I expected with a narrow track most of the way and plenty of footprints to give encouragement that even the worst of the bog could be safely circumvented. The summit is more definite than that of Great Whernside but a substantial wall prevents a 360 degree panorama. The bridleway down to Buckden is grassy but amazingly eroded with a few waist high steps if one keeps to it exactly. There is one terrible bog, much worse than any on the traverse from Naughtberry Hill, which requires a considerable deviation. Lower down the track runs pleasantly below a line of small cliffs and here I left it to drop straight down to the stepping stones and the inn at Cray.
The first picture shows Buckden Pike from the flat and boggy top of Naughtberry Hill and the second shows Buckden Pike summit looking west.


panorama eastwards from Buckden Pike - click on the image for a larger version

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