Autumn walks weekend 2024: Saturday 7th September — Inglebororough from Clapham

Leader: Dave Miller

Reporter: Steve Wardle

A relatively small group compared to previous years (8 humans, 4 dogs) set off from the car park of the New Inn in Clapham (where most of us were staying for the weekend) just after 10am. Everyone was eager to get going as the weather didn’t feel quite as warm as had been forecast.

We opted to go up the Ingleborough Estate track (Clapdale Drive) to the west of Clapham Beck which is private and requires the purchase of a ticket. £2.50each return (dogs are free) wasn’t unreasonable.

Around 4 km into the walk we stopped for a quick snack. Vanessa, still in rehab after her hip replacement, chose to leave us here and head back via the alternative path down the east side of Clapham Beck. The rest of us pushed on with the wind becoming significant and making it feel much cooler as we ascended over the more open ground. By the time we’d stopped to re-group on Little Ingleborough, low cloud was sweeping in and out around us. As is so often the case as we stood shivering, we could see patches of hillside bathed in sunshine not too far away…

When we reached Ingleborough summit visibility was very poor but there was space to get out of the wind in the shelter, so we stopped for a quick lunch. At least it wasn’t raining.

Coming off the top one of the party tripped and fell narrowly avoiding landing head first. Had they done the same thing a few meters earlier we’d have been calling for mountain rescue. As it was, the injuries looked to be limited to a bloody knee, grazed thigh and bruising. After a few minutes more descent it was apparent that while the knee was uncovered and the bleeding stopping the graze was chafing and needed attention, so we stopped to apply a dressing. The patient recovered sufficiently to join the walk on the following day!

The weather improved during our afternoon descent which was east along the Dales Highway past the derelict “Shooting Hut” where we had another brief stop to consume whatever we hadn’t managed to during our short lunchbreak.

After walking a couple more kilometres south we turned right to head toward Clapham. We broke from the “advertised” route to get back onto Clapdale Drive for the last section of the walk. This allowed us to get full value from our £2.50 tickets and get to the Old Sawmill Café to meet up with Vanessa for more refreshments just before it closed at 4.30pm.

The New Inn is located next door to the CRO HQ which provides the cave and mountain rescue service in the Three Peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and also extending westwards into Lancashire and Cumbria and eastwards as far as Malham and Gordale.

It was here that Dave had arranged to meet Mike — an old caving friend of his and now one of the CRO directors. Mike and his wife showed us into the building for a guided tour of the vehicles, equipment and “operations room”. Mike was keen to show off the bespoke software developed by some of the volunteers for helping coordinate and track personnel during a rescue. The CRO deal with around 100 incidents per year. All very interesting.

Thanks to Dave for organising both another enjoyable walk and the informative insight into the CRO by Mike.