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BB1526
: A Discourse On Paving
Wednesday
22nd July 2015
Stan
was at first somewhat disparaging about my suggestion
that we should visit Pen-y-Ghent again, not having been
there since BB0933.
He thought it too short for a “proper walk”. Bryan
then suggested that we add in Plover Hill, which had
been my intention, in order to make it a proper day
out.
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Horton-in-Ribblesdale
was our start point where we saw a group
of squaddies preparing for an expedition.
Soon
we would see them again.
Meanwhile,
we paid a visit to the Norman church.
To
my uneducated eye, it is a nice old church
but without any features of particular interest.
Not
surprisingly, the residents of the village
think otherwise and describe its history
in great detail on their website
page dedicated to St Oswald.
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St
Oswald's with Pen-y-Ghent behind
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A
campsite warning
We
approached Pen-y-Ghent by the Brackenbottom route. I
could see some folk ahead and wondered if I should attempt
to reel them in. Actually, I didn’t seem to be
going that strongly so I was relieved to discover they
had two young children with them who want to stop thereby
allowing us old stagers to go through.
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b.jpg)
Squaddies
heading up the steps to Pen-y-Ghent
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Then
I looked back and what should I see coming
up behind us but the army. The soldiers
we had seen in Horton were on the march
up the hill. Should we seek to keep them
at bay?
It
looked for a while that Stan would give
them cause to reflect but he decided not
to embarrass them so we let them pass.
More
annoying were the young lads who came up
next. They didn’t seem to be going that
fast but soon they were well ahead. Of
us, not the squaddies.
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I
did have a chat with one of them, to ask him why he
was carrying a cricket ball in this hand- a seemingly
strange things to do when scrambling up rocks where
four points of contact were essential for me. “So
we can play catch at the top” was the reply. Pretty
obvious really.
There
is a cairn at the summit with one of those strange signs
that seem all the rage these days.
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John
explained to me how you could photo them
with your mobile phone then use an app to
read what they were trying to tell you.
I
feel increasingly like a dinosaur. It
seems that not only can I no longer (despite
last week's minor triumph) give chase up
the hill, I don’t understand this new technology.
That's me who was the first person in the
company to use and program a personal computer!
Mind
you that was about 45 years ago.
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What
I did understand was that the two people we met on the
way to Plover Hill in the clag were well and truly lost.
Fortunately I had a spare map with me so we gave
it to them and Bryan directed them to the safe way off
the hill. Hopefully they followed his instructions.
Our
descent from the Plover Hill summit had one short section
traversing above an uncomfortably steep drop. We
all survived and likewise managed to cross the Hull
Pot Beck without incident. On the map are marked
“Stepping Stones” but we concluded that this was a reference
to some natural rocks which emulated a stepping
stone appearance rather than a man-made structure for
when the beck was in spate. The rocks were lethally
slippery but fortunately there was no need to use them.
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The
Stepping Stones ( ? )
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A
different type of stepping stones!
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The
countryside round there is fairly desolate moorland,
mostly featureless although we did sometimes see Ingleborough
emerge from the cloud and, likewise, the Pen-y-Ghent
summit.
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Ingleborough
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Pen-y-Ghent
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However,
soon there was a real feature, Hull Pot,
about which I had totally forgotten from
our previous visits.
How
that could be I don’t know as it is quite
a remarkable sight, a huge chasm into
which the beck had disappeared.
Although
we could see and hear a little trickle,
there we could also hear the deep sound
of water running underground, probably through
a large tunnel.
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Pen-y-Ghent
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I
thought for a moment that Stan or Bryan might want to
climb down into it. John and I certainly were not tempted
in the slightest!
On
returning along the old track we met a farm lass who
had an impressive off road vehicle. She was blocking
the lane whilst her father drove the sheep up then into
a field. Technology hasn’t quite made the sheepdog redundant.
There he was on the back of dad’s quad bike, keeping
the old man company.
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Daughter
waiting for.....
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.....
father, sheep & dog (hidden on quad
bike)
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Now
for the discourse on paving. Various attempts
have been made to save the ground from erosion caused
by people undertaking the Pennine Way or the Ribble
Way or undertaking the Three Peaks challenge or just
out walking like us. The paths must take an enormous
amount of hammer and it was interesting to compare the
different techniques that had been taken in various
parts to pave or protect the ground.
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The
first example was a trail of slabs of rock
seemingly and incongruously imported from
Scotland which is rather sad given that
they were set in clear view of the local
(and active quarry).
Then
there were steps of more indigenous looking
smaller rocks.
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Perhaps
the most interesting paving was the path
of large slabs of slate or yellow sandstone
that had obviously been removed from the
floors of old buildings.
You
could see where the holes had been cut for
door posts.
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At
the Foxup Moor watershed few people pass that way so
finding any sort of path was a challenge at times.
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Shortly
after the Hull Pot we turned west on a path
that is not marked as being part of the
Pennine Way but must be used by masses of
people who don't see the need to visit Horton
and so take the logical short cut. It is
a Three Peaks route.
Here
was a real motorway, seemingly underlaid
with some sort of mesh and plastic to support
the non-indigenous slate chippings on top.
What
next? Tarmac?
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It
is easy to be critical of such efforts and deplore the
scarring of the countryside caused by these artificial
means but where there is such a large number of people
regularly passing through, could the alternative of
doing nothing be far worse? On the other hand, some
of these measures can become quite treacherous in bad
conditions, especially when coated with snow or ice,
in which case people do have to be on their guard and
tred with caution.
Finally,
a sight that could become our new signature photo:
Don,
Wednesday 23rd July 2015
Post
Script: Sorry boys, I forgot to take a Comitibus
photo.
The
Priest's Hole
Following
his return to Scotland, Peter Macd sent me this photo
of Stan looking into the Priest's Hole last week on
BB1525
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| STATISTICS
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BB1526
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| Date:
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Wednesday
22nd July 2015
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| Distance
in miles:
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10.6
(Garmin)
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| Height
climbed in feet:
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2,205
(Anquet)
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| Features:
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Pen-y-Ghent,
Hull Pot
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| Comitibus:
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Bryan,
Don, John, Stan
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BOOTboys
routes are put online in gpx format which
should work with most mapping software. You can follow
our route in detail by downloading bb1526 .
To
discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing
- although it may not be that up to date - or for the totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see the Excel
file: BB Log.
You
can navigate to the required report via the Home
Page
Photos
have been gleaned from many sources
although mostly
from me and other BOOTboys. Likewise written comment.
I apologise if I have
failed to acknowledge properly the source or infringed
copyright. Please let me
know and I will do my best to put things right.
Unless stated
otherwise, please feel free to download the material
if you wish.
A reference back to this website
would be appreciated.
Wainwrights
To
see which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing
see Which
Wainwright When?
This
may or may not be up to date!
For the latest totals
of the mileages, heights and Lakeland Fells Books Wainwrights see: Wainwrights.
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BOOTboys
2015
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