This was the last hike myself and @bingbabe managed before my summer 2 month break from work was over. We had previously been in this part of Yorkshire quite recently while scaling the mountains of Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent.
The walk is described here and is another one from the library of the excellent iFootpath.
It was another excuse to visit that excellent restaurant, ‘The Fisherman’ really! Starting from Settle town centre the map took us up a steep windy road before it turned into a dirt track and then finally a path.
Some of these old abandoned buildings look like they are from the middle ages. It was a nice day, one of the last ones we were going to have.
You could really picture 'The Black Knight' storming out of this ancient looking building, and blasting through that door. Only the glass in the window spoils the ideology.
The lovely weather of July was gone, August had arrived and brought with it more of the typical summer weather we have in the United Kingdom. Changeable at best and rain quite a lot of the time.
What I remember about this hike, was there seemed to be more uphill than downhill. Not possible? Of course not, but it was not until later that we found out just why this seemed to be.
The ascent included views of my nemesis mountain, 'Pen-y-ghent' which can be seen in the distance on this photograph.
The walk up was quite uneventful until we reached a sign marked, ‘Jubilee Cave’. This was not on the agenda, but what the hell it was so close that we could see the caves and a large family mulling around them too.
The family were just leaving and I asked one of them, ‘Is it worth a visit?’
‘Oh yes’, was the resounding response I got. That sounded good so we continued toward the caves. There were a couple of entrances, one was a little shrouded in nettles but nevertheless approachable.
We went in the larger cave first and realised they were all connected inside. They caves were not so deep that you could get lost, but might provide some shelter from the bad weather if needed.
It was quite dark in there, and you had to crawl to get further in. I decided to stay in the most accessible areas while @bingbabe went a little further in.
Moving on to the main attraction, we had to climb a little to get to ‘Victoria Cave’ and we were not alone. It seems this is a popular place and was full of hikers having their packed lunches around the outside.
Inside was quite empty, affording me some snaps without people. Warning signs had been placed to deter visitors going too far in. The cave entrance is large, and how far inside it goes I wouldn’t like to guess.
It’s not big and exotic enough to demand an entrance fee but still has a decent following of people. I would guess around 20 of them all eating their 'butties'. That's a English only northern word for you @katharsisdrill!
Leaving the cave it appeared to be all downhill. That was a welcome relief after all the climbing we had endured. This was to be short lived after yet more uphill was about to come upon us. You can see the heads of the 'butty eating crew' at the entrance.
Further down the trail, I spotted this entrance. This area appears to be full of these caves, even this one seemed interesting until I went inside and realised it only went back around 10 feet.
Finally we appeared to be heading downward and the trek started getting steep. A little later we released why we had endured all that climbing.
The downhill trek was really steep, making me break into a run while tying to zig-zag to steady myself. It lasted just a few hundred yards but I would have hated to do the trek in reverse.
This part of the trek would have been monstrous to climb up.
We were quickly back in Settle after our forced downhill run and into that ‘Fisherman’ for another bout of Fish and Chips!
ALL photographs were taken by myself.
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