Additional information
Terrain
- Mostly riverside paths but some steep climbs and a stretch of moorland, which can be boggy in winter or after a wet spell
Landscape
- Limestone crags and high hills, including Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough, rise dramatically on both sides of the valley
Dog friendliness
- There may be opportunities to run free on the high moors if sheep are not present. Take care on the byway after this as it is used by mountain bikes and motor vehicles.
Parking
- Pay-and-display car-parks in both Settle and Horton in Ribblesdale
Toilets en route
- Settle town centre, Stainforth, Horton car park
About the walk
Settle, which received its market charter in 1249, is surrounded on three sides by impressive limestone uplands. Located where stock-rearing, uplands farming meets the mixed farming of the south, it has prospered from both. Later, 18th-century development reduced the town’s reliance on farming and... today tourism plays an important part in its economy. The lead on the roof of the Norman church at Horton in Ribblesdale pre-dates the warring years of the Reformation and the Civil War. Thanks to its out-of-the-way situation, the church escaped the roof-stripping that happened to other churches on main travel routes.A strange story lies behind a mysterious inscription on a brass plate brought in from the churchyard to protect it from the weather. It reads: Sacred to the memory of Richard Thornton, a short time ago schoolmaster here for the district, an honest man, fleeing from the Law, anxious to prove his innocence, and also Elizabeth, his wife. Catherine, their only daughter, erected these tombstones at her own expense as a token of appreciation of the life of her dead parents. Died 29th August, 1744, 57 years. Nobody knows why the honest teacher was fleeing from the Law. The enigma remains to tantalise.Horton is a starting point for people attempting the famous Three Peaks challenge circuit over Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Pennine Way and other long-distance walkers use it as a base, as do cavers and pot-holers. The Three Peaks are the best-known of the Yorkshire Dales and their shapes are perhaps the best-loved of all the Dales mountains. Whernside, to the northwest, is the highest at 2418ft (737m); westwards Ingleborough rises to 2,373ft (723m), eastwards and just 100ft (30m) lower, is Pen-y-Ghent at 2,273ft (693m). In 1887, two Giggleswick schoolteachers, Canon J R Wynne- Edwards and D R Smith, walked over Ingleborough to have tea at the Hill Inn, Chapel-le-Dale. Whernside beckoned and they decided to tackle it. From its summit, Pen-y-ghent lured them on, to complete the three. So the golden age of peak bagging in the Dales began and the Yorkshire Ramblers was born. In 1897, four of its members started and finished the Three Peaks in 10.5 hours from Gearstones. Today, 12 hours is considered a reasonable time in which to ‘do’ them, clocking in and out at the Pen-y-ghent Café in Horton in Ribblesdale. Because of erosion the present route has been extended to 25 miles (40km) with 5,000ft (1,524m) of ascent.
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