Gareth Jones Walks: Pen-y-ghent

Route: Horton-in-Ribblesdale - Horton Scar - Tarn Bar - Pennine Way - Pen-y-ghent - Plover Hill - Foxup Moor - Horton Moor - Horton Scar - Horton-in-Ribblesdale

Distance: 10.5 miles

Classification:
Pen-y-ghent: Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall
Plover Hill: Hewitt, Nuttall

With: Nick

Weather: Sunny with cloudy intervals, windy and quite cold on top

Trip report:
Earlier in the week the weather was pointing towards the Peak District having fairly decent weather, and anywhere north of our home in Halifax as being awful. Nick would be my partner this weekend and I had said to him that either Kinder Scout or Bleaklow would be the Hewitt to bag this weekend.

As the week progressed the weather forecast for North Yorkshire improved which meant an opportunity for a higher peak for Nick, and a chance to bag my third of Yorkshire's Three Peaks for me, having climbed Ingleborough and Whernside previously.

We set off for North Yorkshire in good spirits, laughing at the cheesy songs on Radio Two before landing at the car park at the Golden Lion pub in Horton-in-Ribblesdale. The original plan was to ascend the 'nose' of Pen-y-ghent, but as there was a group of appriximately 100 people in front of us we decided instead to head straight for the Pennine Way and ascend from the west.

It was a good route up, it wasn't overly busy and the climb was fairly steady with a steep, final pull. Nick, I now know, is a lot fitter than I am, and he set the pace which meant that we were quickly on the summit of Pen-y-ghent. The summit, as you would expect, was packed, and we enjoyed views of Inglebrough, Pen-y-ghent and Pendle Hill before leaving the crowds behind and heading for Plover Hill.

As you'll see on the OS map, there's a wall from the summit of Pen-y-ghent all the way to Plover Hill which would be very useful if the mist came down, no such troubles for us today, just the occasional bog to avoid, but nothing too serious.

We only saw one other person making his way to Plover Hill, but he didn't take in the pile of stones marking Plover Hill's summit, he carried on instead to the route of our descent. In order to find the actual summit you do need a very slight diversion. Grid reference SD8492875209 will take you to the exact location, it had it within 1 foot on my GPS! The views south from Plover Hill are very good and the descent of Plover Hill opens up fantastic views over Foxup Moor and Birkwith Moor.

Our final stop would be Hull Pot and it was something that I was not expecting. I had seen pictures of Hull Pot on the internet but was not prepared for how steep it actually was. I'm not great with heights and I was casually walking straight for the edge, but was stopped in my tracks when I saw how deep it was. I froze a good few feet from the edge as Nick asked what was wrong with me!

But it was a great sight, we walked all the way around it before making our way back to the pub and the car, but only after a well deserved pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord. It was a nice surprise to see the pub landlord is also a fellow Burnley fan, and there was plenty of Clarets stuff on display in the pub, I wasn't expecting that up here in North Yorkshire. But as the landlord pointed out, it's probably the closest club to here, he's probably right.

All in all this was a good walk. I still need to go up the conventional way of Pen-y-ghent, but it gave Nick a taste of fellwalking, and he wants to go higher next time. Plans are already being drawn up for the Old Man of Coniston...