Grey Skies At Top Cow Pasture Rocks

Cow Pasture Rocks in another place I've blogger about a couple of times before. Situated not far from the road from Horton in Ribblesdale to Ribblehead, it is an ideal place to stop due to its limestone pavement. It may not be the biggest pavement in these parts but it is still a good spot to grab some photos plus, I reckon that if you are fit enough, you could navigate yourself on to the summit of Ingleburough but I'll leave that for someone else to try!

I didn't hang about too long though as it was drizzling and rather cold. On a nice crisp clear day, you can get some stunning shots looking across to Pen Y Ghent with the lime stone making a perfect foreground. 

Limestone Scenery

An early winter's morning visit to the limestone scenery above Malham, taking in Ing Scar and the top of The Watlows Dry Valley along which The Pennine Way runs. My return journey gave lovely views over the Ribble Valley towards Pen y Ghent and Ingleborough.

Comb Hill from Ings Scar

Above Malhamdale

Comb Hill from Ings Scar

Dean Moor Hill from Langscar

Frosted Moss

Frosted Moss

Path To Watlows

Pennine Way, Watlows Dry Valley

Watlows Dry Valley

Pennine Way

Towards Ingleborough

Towards Pen y Ghent

Towards Ingleborough

Above Ribblesdale

Bridleway to Stainforth

 

Winskill Stones

Usual scenario, I leave the house in sunshine and by the time I reach Skipton, the cloud has moved in. I had earlier considered going up to The Lakes for the day but a quick check of The Met Office app quickly put paid to that as well!

The limestone pavement at Winskill really is a great place to be. You can see all The Three Peaks; Ingleborough is directly in front, Whernside just to its right and, set aside from the other two, is Pen-y-Ghent to the north. Add to that the famous Winskill hawthorn and you have a photographers paradise, even when its a dull day like today was.

Mind you, areas like this at one time had been in threat of being ruined. The well-known gardener Geoff Hamilton was a great supporter of the campaign to stop people buying limestone pavement to make rockeries from and when he died, this important area of limestone pavement was bought by Plantlife International and the reserve dedicated to his memory. Thank you Geoff! Lots of photos of the Pavement and tree were taken before returning to the car to warm up. You really are exposed to the elements at Winskill.

My next port of call was a limestone area known as The Giant's Grave which is round the back of Pen-y-Ghent. I've searched the Internet and can't find out how or why it got its name. Its another one of those places that is a photographers delight. It is a small limestone pavement which overlooks the valley of Pen-y-Ghent Gill and has Littondale and The Horse Head Pass as a distant backdrop. I had to hang around there for ages for a decent bit of light to come across but I was well rewarded in the end.

I took a my last few photos looking down on Littondale. The light wasn't too good but due to a bitterly cold wind I couldn't hang around and had to get back to the car as quickly as I could before my fingers dropped off! As so ofter happens, the sun broke through as I reached Wharfedale which was slightly annoying but it did gave me a very pleasant drive home. Despite the weather, I still had a great afternoon out and I think I took some pretty good photos.

Winskill Nature Reserve

Winskill Stones Hawthorn

Winskill Stones Hawthorn

Winskill Stones and Pen-y-Ghent

Winskill Stones Hawthorn

Winskill Stones Hawthorn

Pen -y-Ghent from Winskill Stones

Erratic

Erratic

The Giant's Grave above Littondale

The Giant's Grave above Littondale

Littondale

Horsehead Pass

Littondale