Giggleswick Scar - 31st October 2011

Walk: 10:30am to 2:30pm - 6.7 miles

A very dull and damp start to the day today, with a forecast of rain this morning then a grey afternoon. So, should we wait until the rain stops, or get the wet gear on and set off anyway? Our plan today was to leave the car parked up again, and set off through Settle and towards Feizor, coming back over Giggleswick Scar and paying a visit to the quarry – maybe not a ‘beauty spot’, but worth a view if you’re in the area. 

And today a first for me since we started going on walking holidays – I would be venturing out WITHOUT MY SLR, just taking my wife’s Panasonic TZ8 with us. I'm always jealous that most of my JPEG's need sharpening up whereas my wife's don't - so happy to stick with the compact. As we were expecting to see some rain throughout the day, I decided that the portability that the Compact offered would be advantageous.

We set off from our cottage at the southern end of the town, and headed through the  town centre which was unusually quiet –maybe the grey skies were keeping people away. We headed along the main road towards Giggleswick, under the railway then over the River Ribble, then took a right turn just after the swimming pool and along the lane which takes you to Stackhouse. Just before Stackhouse we went through a small gate and picked up the path heading towards Feizor. Some of the trees in this area were imitating New England in the 'Fall' - some glorious colours.

A short stretch uphill and then a relatively flat walk, and I impressed myself again walking through fields full of cows, and walking fairly close to a mother and her calves – how brave did I feel,. To my wife it’s just ‘matter of course’ but to me an achievement. We followed the path which apparently passed close to Dead Mans Cave, but if I’m honest we couldn’t see it, but then again we didn't really go looking for it. We had planned to walk to Feizor, but it was starting to rain so decided to take the path back south towards Buck Haw Brow. Just after turning onto this path we found some rocks which would make great seats, and had 20-30 minutes for sandwiches et al.

The next kilometre or so was very pleasant walking across open fields, and then more cows 'loitering' as we turned south-east and then along the top of Giggleswick Scar. Some great views over Giggleswick and Settle from up here, and also much further afield towards the Forest of Bowland. We then skirted around the edge of the old quarry and back down to meet up with the lane we had come along a few hours earlier, then back through the town home to the cottage.

Not a particularly long walk, and not a massive amount of ascent – which was good considering that it was a mild day and much of the second half of the walk it was raining on and off, so it was coat on coat off – whichever way you would end up wet – either from the rain or sweat! A quick shower back at the cottage, then a walk to Booths supermarket for a little shopping and of course the newspaper which I hadn’t been out for this morning. Looking forward to tomorrow already as the weather forecast looks good, so a trip up Ingleborough may be the order of the day.


More photos can be found here