To the Cove and back.

The Malham Cove, Malham Tarn and Gordale Scar walk has just been voted the third best walk in Great Britain behind Helvellyn and Snowdon which is no mean feat. This walk was just a small part of it.

I walked to the Cove via The Pennine Way and returned to the village by taking the limestone footbridge over Malham Beck and then following an old and rarely used path which comes out at the Youth Hostel. You get the best of both worlds doing it that way round: you have the Cove in front of you on your way there and then you have the whole of Malhamdale in front of you on your return. The return path is also very good way to appreciate the many fine limestone walls and buildings in this area.

It also gives you a good insight in to how the limestone dales were once farmed. The archaeological remains of early farms and their field systems are scattered all around the Malham Cove area. The earliest fields are probably Iron Age, but they are overlain by Medieval strip lynchets and terraces. On hillsides, the terraces provided a greater depth of soil in which to grow crops.

On Sheriff Hill (to the right of the Cove) there once sat a large cairn, the remains of which was excavated in the mid 19th century when it's reported that human bones and an iron spearhead were discovered. Also during further excavation in 1955 pottery was found which has subsequently been dated to the middle of the Bronze Age. Unfortunately today it is just a mound of rubble.

I eventually re-joined the road into Malham just above The Lister's Arms. If it had been a warm day I would have bought myself a pint and sat outside but although it had been sunny, it had also been bitterly cold so consequently I just headed off home. As you can tell from the photos, the weather was very kind to me, the sun came out as I approached the Cove and stayed out for the remainder of the afternoon. It's not very often that has happened this winter.