Simon & Park Fell
An often missed mountain
Summary
Simon Fell & Park Fell are two of Ingleborough’s near neighbour fells. Ingleborough is the second highest peak in the Yorkshire Dales and the highest of the infamous Three Peaks. Whilst Simon Fell is the smaller less visited and is also part of the Dales 30. There is also an option to incorporate all three mountains in one route, which starts and finishes from Ingleton. However, this can be popular due to being part of the Yorkshire three peaks challenge. On this occasion, we missed Ingleborough and discovered the view of the mountain from the ‘edge ‘path. This was much more enjoyable! Especially on a clear day.
The Dales truly come into a world of their own.
The Hike
From Chapel-le-dale, the hike began at the foot of the infamous Ingleborough mountain. Surrounded by a maze of limestone pavement, cavernous sinkholes, and rivers. It was a bright sunny day and we had clear views of both Whernside and Pen-y-ghent. Making it feel so much more captivating to roam the Dale. While we continued over the limestone and through numerous stiles, it wasn’t long until we had our first sighting of the gruelling steep climb ahead. luckily, this was the only steep hill of the day. It definitely wasn’t easy!
The path rose steeply upwards. We passed a fellow hiker that had zoomed past us previously. It seemed she had miss underestimated how steep the hill was, as she stopped to catch her breath halfway up. Eventually, the summit began to grow menacingly nearer. We were gasping for air when we arrived on the plateau which was labelled ‘Ridge walk’. It was extremely gusty at the top too and although it was sunny, it was bitterly cold! I looked around and could see nothing but 360 views of rolling fells. I love the feeling of being high up. It makes the climb all worth it and gives me a sense of enormous freedom.
Shortly after, we arrived at Park Fell. A grand place to stop for a banana before tackling the slow-rising hill to Simon Fell. The entire area felt vast and exposed. We barely saw anybody. It was great! We had a really clear view of Ingleborough from Simon Fell too. I’ve never seen the mountain from that angle. I think I prefer it instead of going to the summit.
Simon Fell was but a mere rubble of rocks, it hardly seemed a summit top, but it was good to tick another one of the Dales 30 off. Onwards, we continued along a magnificent ‘edge’ path beside Ingleborough. Admiring the swooping steep-sided valley and a wide panorama of Yorkshire’s magic mountain. The views of Chapel-le-Dale, Ribblehead, and Whernside were incredible! It was so clear! The descent was extremely steep! This brought us back down along the wide valley below, where the path gently meandered through a labyrinthine of limestone paving and back to the car.
A fine day spent in the Dales.
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