YOUR WEEKEND IN...
Set in the heart of the Craven Dales, touristfriendly Malham is the perfect launch pad for adventures in lime and space. John Manning is your guide and drinking companion
GUIDEBOOK AUTHOR Alfred Wainwright paid Malham asomewhat backhanded compliment in his 1968 Pennine Way Companion: “The limestone country around Malham is the best walkers’ territory so far encountered along the Pennine Way, and there is nothing better to come.”
Now, we could sit and debate that with him for hours, perhaps over a pint and beerbattered fish and chips in the village’s cosy Lister Arms. John Wood, author of Mountain Trail, the first account of awalk along the Pennine Way (PW) – 21 years before Wainwright’s guide appeared –was kinder: “Malham is more hospitable than most country places, and deserves our gratitude and continued support.” Wainwright was at least right about the area’s appeal: this glistening, sparkling limestone country – England’s range of light –boasts some of our finest geological wonders.
Best-known is Malham Cove, a 260fthigh, 1000ft-wide (80m by 300m) limestone wall that draws climbers, nesting falcons and walkers alike. Ten thousand years ago, glacial meltwaters poured over the cliff in a waterfall thought to have rivalled today’s Niagara. It occurred again – in a diminutive spout rather than a torrent –on 6December, 2015, during Storm Desmond. Who knows, it might have happened at other times too, but no one saw it because the weather was just too bad to venture out.
Less well-known, though arguably grander still, is nearby Gordale Scar –a deep cleft between sheer limestone cliffs, at the head of which its beck cascades over boulders presenting a barrier to some, a brief challenging scramble to others.
The YHA hostel in the village has served walkers since it opened in 1949, and has welcomed Pennine Wayfarers since Britain’s first National Trail opened in 1965. It passes through the village’s heart, its green diamonds recently joined on the Ordnance Survey’s Yorkshire Dales Southern &Western Areas Explorer sheet by those of the Dales High Way, a 90-mile (144km) walk from Saltaire in the South Pennines to Appleby-in-Westmorland in the North Pennines, which takes in many Dales highlights, including those of Malham. As a walker’s hub, few villages are as well-endowed as Malham.
YOUR WEEKEND, SORTED
Pay homage to England’s first National Trail, or pick off some of the country’s geological treasures The Pennine Way, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, leads from the village, tracing Malham Beck to the famous cove on an engineered path that bears testament to the cliff’s summertime popularity. Once up the steps at its side, however, you’re on slippery-when-we
