Today we set off on the now familiar journey up the A59 with the September weather looking reasonably clear if a little cloudy, but not threatening rain. Before we begin the next stage of our Ribble Way adventures where we left off last week, at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, we drive back up to Selside near Alum Pot - but this time our detour will be down to the confluence of Cam Beck with Gayle Beck below Selside Moss. Our detour’s destination is only a short distance away from our unplanned shirty bull induced detour along Cam Beck the previous week, but this time, we’ll be the other side of the River, and continuing downhill as far as the confluence itself, which is where the river “officially” becomes the Ribble…
As one of our planned detours the previous week was to Ribblehead, where Gayle Beck cuts a fantastic limestone gorge through the fell before emerging out onto the valley floor, we are keen to see if such an impressive place can be matched or even beaten by the Gayle Beck – Cam Beck confluence, or whether we remain satisfied in our own minds that, for us (and many others), Ribblehead marks the true beginning of the River Ribble proper…
Parking on the track to Alum Pot, we head East, walking down the road a short distance to Foss Barn where we turn left onto the footpath through the farm which leads down to the river. You can’t miss the footpath as the converted barn right on the road here has a floor-to-roof glass window, allowing an unrestricted view straight into one of the tidiest kitchens I’ve ever seen (well, you would, wouldn’t you…).
The path down to the river runs roughly east following a similar line down as Selside Beck, running around the southern edge of Hornsey Hill, and is a pleasant walk down between two drystone walls…
The fairly steep descent down to the Ribble allows fantastic views of the valley and the fells beyond…
Pen-y-ghent from Selside.
Upland moors...
...meet lush Ribble Valley...
…and the local Selsiders are as interested in us as we are in them.
At the bottom of the path, just a short trek across a sheep field on the east side of Hornsey Hill brings you to a footbridge over the Ribble, which takes the footpath over the river and alongside Coppy Gill up to High Birkwith, but we intend to leave Dismal Hill to its own devices today, and stay here below Selside Moss to explore the Ribble…
The River Ribble at Selside footbridge.
We go back through the gate on the west side of the Ribble and following the line of the river upstream along the wall of the field and through the gate to meet the confluence of Cam Beck with Gayle Beck below Selside Moss and the official launchpad of the River Ribble…
We find the confluence is a pleasant if rather bare spot, but it’s clear that the landowners are planning a much more interesting shaded “grotto” with the newly-planted saplings of several species of native tree thickly dotted in protective tubes all around the head pool of the river. Once mature, the mixture of Rowan, Hawthorn, and Oak amongst several other species will give a much more pleasant and more impressive setting to the place where the Ribble gathers itself before setting off on the next stage of its long journey down to the Irish Sea (and the trees will also help to prevent erosion of the riverbanks).
Gayle Beck on the left, having left Ribblehead and wended its way around the West side of Cam Fell, is by far the bigger of the two flows as it enters the deep pool formed here…
…meeting Cam Beck as it joins from the right of the pool, having flowed down from the East side of Cam Fell, and can be seen as a small gravelly patch at the centre of the picture here…
…and the huge difference in size of these two bodies of water alone confirms us in our already-held opinion that Gayle Beck is already the River Ribble, and has been so since leaving the limestone gorge at Ribblehead a couple of miles upstream. This, alongside the less impressive meeting point of these two bodies of water at Selside, encourages our opinion to become more entrenched, though I daresay subjective aesthetics probably shouldn’t be a deciding factor in answering the question When is a Ribble Not a Ribble…
Nonetheless, this is another stage on the Ribble’s journey, and one Muddy can’t resist celebrating in her own way…
..though this time not such an “inimitable” way as Darren decides to join her for a swim!
Darren confirms that the water is indeed very cold...
...but after Muddy performs an encouraging swim-by, he takes the plunge.
After a jolly good swim, Daz decides he's done his stint and leaves Muddy to it.
After some concern that the towel may not be up to the job, Darren dries off, and we spend a little longer exploring the pool…
…before setting off back to Selside.
The Ribble bubbles and gurgles over the stony bed as it leaves the pool at Selside and heads off downstream towards Horton-in-Ribblesdale, where we finished the previous leg of our journey last week so will be the starting point of today’s Ribble Way walk.
On the way back up to Selside, we enjoy the further delights that nature has to offer:
…Swallows keeping still enough to capture on camera twittering away above our heads…
…wildflowers all around us…
…and the drystone wall alongside offering fascinating arrays of mosses and plants to admire, blooming in the damp shade beneath the trees …
Back at Selside, we picnic on the limestone rocks called Top Cow Pasture Rocks, but luckily there are no cows here to bother us this week (although our Bovine Adventures on the Ribble Way are FAR from over…) while we munch our way through pies and butties and crisps and strawberries and home-made Pennine-Honey-and-Yorkshire-butter flapjacks and explore the fascinating delights of a limestone ecosystem…
...interesting lichens grow on the limestones themselves...
...aswell as numerous wildflowers...
...including Eyebright...
...and Self-Heal, growing between the rocks.
After our picnic, we drive down to Horton-in-Ribblesdale and begin the next instalment of the Ribble Way, walking from Horton down to Stainforth.
The Ribble at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, looking upstream towards Selside.
The riverbanks and lush green Ribble valley are instantly beautiful as the Ribble wends on her way down towards Stainforth and Settle...
...although we are soon met with an unexpected riverside attraction as we leave Horton village behind - a "dry-ski slope"!
of course, we all have to try it out - including the dog!
...and it's difficult to tear the children away - of all ages - but after a good half an hours fun, we tear ourselves away at last and carry on along the Ribble Way.
The first half of the journey, as far as Helwith Bridge, is along the Ribble itself, barring one or two places where the path strays away slightly, and the views of the river are fabulous, and the surrounding river valley and more distant fells spectacular…
Even a dog knows a good view when she sees one!
The river is ever-changing: sometimes a stony bed with a fast-moving, gurgling river hurrying over itself and a delight to the ear as well as the eye…
…sometimes slowing into deep pools where fish jump (always when the camera isn’t ready!)…
…sometimes shaded by the beautiful trees along its banks…
…other times the banks are open to the sunshine and are thick with grasses and plants and wildflowers…
…and always there are breath-taking views of the broader valley and the fells beyond…
One sight is rather unpleasant as a stream entering the Ribble along this stretch is thick with a grey-white sludge - whether from the nearby sewage works or something to do with the run-off from the quarries above us on Moughton we're not sure...
After a number of jokes about certain local councils hitting on this idea as a way of "prettifying" the Ribble's "unsightly mudflats", we continue on our way.
At Cragg Hill Farm, the river suddenly deepens and it looks as though the river’s course has been engineered into a channelised stretch…
…before it flows round a beautiful set of hairpin curves towards Helwith Bridge…
Just before we reach Helwith Bridge, the Ribble Way passes a field of beautiful cows – who immediately take umbridge at us and the dog, and proceed to literally charge the fence and having several of us convinced the rage of one in particular will take her through the fence and into the narrow lane with us - which now begins to feel more like a human pen and we try to get through as quickly as possible!!
At a safe distance, we turn and marvel at the snorting and wild-eyed herd she has shepherded to the gate to see us off her patch, and we are convinced we KNOW who her father is - he lives just up the road above Nether Lodge!
The adrenaline gets us and the dog over yet another unhelpful turnstile remarkably quickly, and we head off down to Helwith Bridge at a brisk pace. Darren later complains that the journalist in the party should have taken a picture of the shirty cow - as she should the raging bull the previous week - but I was far too busy herding my own panicking calf out of harms way (let alone my own ass) to start angling for the most dramatic shot!
Dog-juggling and High Wire acts are called for even on the smallest of the unhelpful stiles...
Once we meet Helwith Bridge, we spend a few minutes on the bridge admiring the Ribble with one ear out for traffic as we say goodbye to the Ribble for the rest of the journey.
From Helwith Bridge towards Stainforth.
Here the Ribble Way leaves the riverbank to climb up onto the South West of Overdale, travelling roughly east and south east up towards Little Moor Head before turning to the south and crossing between Bargh Hill and Hesley down to Stainforth.
Leaving Helwith Bridge behind us as we climb.
Again the views across and around the Ribble's valley are fabulous...
...and the brooding weather lends drama even as it lessens the clarity of the distant views...
...including of the ever-lurking Pen-y-ghent...
...yet it is pleasantly warm as we intrepid Ribblesiders pass across the fells, only offering us a brief shower of rain as we cross the highest point...
...marvelling at the moors and bogs...
...streams and gills...
...and the springs emerging from their limestone source beneath our feet...
...and Pendle Hill grows slowly nearer, albeit shrouded in mist as usual.
There are, of course, a number of walls, still mostly with locked gates nearby so we are really getting fed up with hauling the poor dog over, putting her as well as us at risk of sprained ankles in trying to negotiate safe passage...
Another impassable stile for an old dog...
...who's trying to learn new tricks!
The last part of today's walk along the Ribble Way opens out before us: Stainforth just below the hill is today's destination, and Settle can be seen in the middle distance as the Ribble carries on beyond Stainforth towards our destination next week: Wigglesworth!
Whilst we have passed sections of fell which have been replanted with native trees...
...many of the fells above the Ribble are cultivated almost to the tops, mainly for sheep grazing...
...although pockets of the ancient woodlands which used to cover the entire area still remain...
...usually in those difficult-to-reach places for human or sheep!
Although the Ribble itself is often bordered by woodlands, both ancient and more recent...
...and this is true right into South Ribble and Preston, as we'll see later on in the year, when we'll get a closer look at some of the ancient woodlands which still run alongside the Ribble as they have for countless centuries.
In the meantime, Stainforth and Settle lie in an incredibly beautiful valley on the Ribble...
...and we pause to enjoy this marvelous vista before continuing on down the hill.
The last stile of the day is an unusual one...
... which Muddy is particularly pleased with, but which presents its own challenges...
And only after we've all crawled through and set off down the final few hundred yards to the gate to the village do we turn and see a huge gap in the wall further along where we could all have ambled through quite happily!
Still, at least the gate into the village was easy to open...
Stainforth at last.
We have only walked about 6 miles along the Ribble Way today but it has been a Grand Day Out once again...
...and the dog has had her day!
You can read our previous Adventures on The Ribble Way Part 1: Search for the Source...
... and Part 2, From Gearstones to Horton: "Spot The Ribble"
and you can continue your journey on the next part of our Ribble Way adventures - from Stainforth to Wigglesworth!
You can contact me at savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk
