Clapham, North Yorkshire

Friday 18th to Sunday 20th July 2025

This is a return visit to Clapham. We last visited in July 2021 and you can read about that visit at the following link: <here> . I will try to avoid too much repetition of that content in this post.

We are again staying on a temporary holiday site, hosted by the BCC, a section of the Camping and Caravanning Club. Minimal facilities, but nice countryside and a beautiful village to visit. Our thanks to the Stewards for the warm welcome and efficient organisation.

Clapham is a village in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, right on the edge of the Lancashire/Yorkshire border which runs parallel to the A65 around this point. We are parked-up in a field, just across into Lancashire, but it is a short walk into the village, where we were told, the playwright Alan Bennett lives.

Friday 18th July – Clapham Village:

After setting up, we wandered through the village and did a bit of shopping.

At the far end of the village there is the entrance to the Ingleborough Nature Trail which leads to Ingleborough Cave and onward to Gaping Gill pot, which we visited in 2021. Just near this entrance is a high waterfall with a footbridge over the top:

The Parish Church of St James is interesting and in part, quite old, but it is quite plain in appearance. There has been worship on the site since the 11th century and the original church was replaced in medieval times. Of this medieval structure, just the tower now remains. It was built in about 1380 with walls about a metre thick at the base and enormous corner buttresses.

The nave and aisles are tall and this creates a large space inside. This part of the church replaced the medieval nave in 1814 and is about twice the size. I think it is out of proportion to the tower which looks too small.

Saturday 19th July – Clapham Station:

With very changeable weather, we decided to explore paths leading away from the village and a little further into our home county of Lancashire.

Clapham Station is about a mile and a quarter into Lancashire from the village. It sits on the Bentham Line which is described as one of the most picturesque railway lines in the country. Trains to Leeds, Lancaster and Morecambe pass through here and it is a branch of the Settle-Carlisle railway line which passes over the famous Ribblehead Viaduct.

Sunday 20th July – A walk towards Austwick:

With moody skies and a weather forecast of heavy rain later in the day, we chose to take a walk along Thwaite Lane, a bridleway across the moors towards the village of Austwick.

The bridleway starts steeply from behind St James’ Church through two consecutive tunnels before emerging onto a plateau and stunning views.

We turned back after exploring the Norber erratics which are huge boulders left behind by the last ice-age:

Although we did encounter a couple of brief showers, we enjoyed an excellent walk whilst watching heavy rain storms track down the valley and the A65 road to the south.

We arrived back at the van just in time to avoid the onset of heavy continual rain. That is all for now. See-u-later and TTFN.