Ingleton, White Scar Cave & Kirkby Lonsdale

With the weather forcast in our favour, we decided to vist North Yorkshire again; this time to Ingleton.

Ingleton

Ingleton is a small town situated in a valley at the confluence of the River Twiss and River Doe. The merged waters of these form the River Greta.

With 11 arches, each spanning 17 metres, the 24 metre high viaduct crosses the River Greta which is a tributary of the River Lune. It was completed in 1861. Ingleton once boasted two railway stations, now there are none. You unfortunately cannot walk across the viaduct, it’s sole use now is to carry services such as fibre-optic broadband cable. A pity really as if a path were to be opened, it could be a real attraction for visitors.

We stayed on the car park of the Three Horseshoes pub on both Friday and Saturday nights. No charge, but of course we were expected to be customers. Being the “closed” season, food is not served every day, but we enjoyed a nice meal there on Saturday evening.

On Saturday, we walked up out of the village to the top of Twistleton Scar where there is a limestone pavement and numerous “erractic” boulders.

The exposed limestone pavement on the scar must provide a harsh environment but has the occasional tree growing, surviving against the odds:

Once on top of the scar, the going flattens out to a plateau where the erracic boulders are to be found.

There are also numerous sink-holes such as this one:

The walking is quite strenous in places and we walked a total of nearly 10 miles. On the way back, we chose to follow the second half of the Ingleton waterfalls trail:

White Scar Cave

After a well-earned good night’s sleep, on Sunday we chose further physical activity with a visit to White Scar Cave.

Access to the cave is via guided tours which last around 80 minutes. In places, the headroom is very low, so everyone needs to wear a hard-hat. I bumped mine against the roof many times.

Kirkby Lonsdale

We had finished our tour of the cave by lunchtime, so we went on to explore the local town of Kirkby Lonsdale on our way homeward.

The town was busy with visitors. There are many small independent retailers.

The parish church of St Mary’s has a very long history with parts of it surviving from the 12th century and additions from almost every centrury since. The result is a mix of styles.

When you look at the east window above the alter, you see it is not central to the nave, being offset to the left. The window above is central however.

Although the first pillar above is early 12th century, the gothic arch on the far side of it and the next pillar, are late 19th century.