An undisturbed Limestone landscape

Summary

Situated in the Yorkshire Dales lies the quaint Town of Austwick. A town where visitors can explore stunning geological sites such as the Norber Erratics, a collection of carboniferous limestone and sandstone boulders that were moved by the ice age glaciers created by weather erosion. Moughton and Moughton Scar have an irresistible limestone panorama, with large cliff faces that offer a breath-taking view overlooking the spectacular national park and visible views of the three peaks (Ingleborough, Whernside & Pen-y-Ghent).

This is probably one of my favourite hikes in the area!

The Hike

We began the hike from Austwick, whilst parking opposite the ‘Traddock’ alongside the main road. From here, we headed towards Wood Lane, a long gravel road guided by Yorkshire’s finest dry-stone walls. As we followed the path, this brought us to Wood End farm before the path slowly narrowed its way onto the road, taking us to Wharfe. The Wharfe, is a typical dales hamlet, quaint with a peaceful atmosphere. Whilst hidden details such as Winnie the Pooh and painted pebbles from children in the village, sat on the wall face. A welcoming sight.

“I’d love to live somewhere like this” I thought.

From here, the path continued upwards before opening onto a vast landscape surrounded by large limestone cliff faces and windswept hills, painted by shadows of clouds and pockets of sunshine.

“How can this be real? This is insane!” Charlotte said.

We followed onwards through a wide valley, before heading upwards towards Studrigg Scar. An area full of loose rock and what seems to look like a former waterfall; this was one of the steeper sections of the hike. From the summit of Studrigg, we had superb towards Ingleborough and beyond. It was absolutely enthralling! We didn’t know where to look. Continuing north along the ridge side and through the valley, this took us to a prominent cairn (which I thought was Moughton) However, this was a great rest stop for a bite to eat. We left the path to head for the summit of Moughton trig point, following a grass path through a remote valley. Although standing at only a modest height of 427m, we climbed to the summit trig point where views of limestone pavement towards Pen-y-Ghent opened up to us. This was spectacular!

Onwards, we continued, along the grass path that dropped down towards Moughton Scars table. The limestone formations began to surround us, with Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough laying behind in the distance.

“This is amazing! I can’t believe how quiet it is! Why is nobody else here?” I said, suddenly three others emerged. We exchanged a few words and one of them commented on how this is their favourite walk. It doesn’t surprise me! Afterwards, we found a spot for lunch and had the most amazing view looking over Crummack Dale. After lunch, we headed towards Moughton scars table, following the path alongside the cliff edge as we danced over the plateau of limestones clints and grikes. We spent the most part of an hour exploring the vast area, it was great!

From Moughton Scar, the path dipped down towards a stile that meandered through the valley of Crummack Dale. Although this was part of the route planned, we were enjoying ourselves too much and decided against descending through the valley, continuing upwards to Sulber Gate. The path gradually rose steeply to the summit, from here we continued along the long plateau of grass fields that provided exquisite views of the limestone below.

Guided by the dry-stone wall, I could see in the distance a large cairn that we couldn’t resist to explore. Still to this day I am unsure what the summit is called, but as we meandered our way to the huge cairn (that was 4 times the size of me) we were rewarded with views of Ingleborough and Simons Fell standing prominently infront. Meanwhile, we began to descend to sharply to the playground of scattered rocks and stones called the Norber Erratics. All different rock formations not in their proper geological position formed from the ice age lifted up by glacial shifts. They are known to be over 430 million years old! As we explored, we continued on the last leg of the hike back towards Austwick, crossing fields full of newborn lambs before following a narrow path alongside a row of cottages back to the town.

A joyous hike and one I will definitely be doing again!

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