Clapham - Ingleborough Cave - Walk

We'd set out to go up Pen-y-ghent but the weather was pretty poor. Plan B was to have a walk from Clapham, keeping relatively low in the valley bottom. It was raining and foggy, nice walking weather!

We Parked at the National Trust Car Park in Clapham village and headed up the valley towards the Church. To make this a circular walk we turned right at the Church and headed through two tunnels, a strange feature that I'd not seen before.

Heading up the hill on a track we turned right at the first opportunity, staying on an old unpaved road, now used by farmers to reach remote areas where sheep roam! The weather took a turn for the worse and the rain got heavier, as we continued up the track the cloud came down and the day felt miserable. It was quite atmospheric, the barren hillsides disappearing into the mist. We soon arrived at a style over the wall and headed down into the valley bottom, back below the tree line.

Jack and Finlay at The Waterfall - Clapham

From here we could have walked up to Trow Gill, but the kids wanted to head back. We were now on the main path above Ingleborough cave and the walk back was more scenic. We stopped briefly at the show cave, but at this time of year everything is shut up. The path back through the valley winds its way above the stream that flows into the artificially made lake. There's also a strange Victorian folly, the kids quickly explored this. Once we got back to Claphan we stopped for a rest at the waterfall which was looking spectacular! Walking back through Clapham we took a closer look at the church and the graveyard, the kids enjoyed looking for old dates on the gravestones.

Considering how poor the weather was the kids did really well, they didn't complain too much, in all we'd walked just short of 4 miles. Considering how muddy and wet everything was we had stayed remarkably clean, it had been an interesting walk, but we were glad to be back in the car and heading home!