Strenuous Leader : John Distance : 10 or 12 miles
From the car park we walk towards the village where we take the path up to Janet’s Foss which is a pretty little waterfall, from there we take the path to Gordale Scar. We have two routes the first one is up the scar or the easy one around the scar – you can pick.
From the top of the scar we head towards Street Gate, depending on the time and weather, we take the path to the Roman Camp and will continue onto Malham Tarn via Great Close Hill where the views are impressive. We will take a turn around the tarn join the Pennine Way and make our way to Malham Cove and then return to Malham.
As most of you know there are good well worn paths, there are a few stiles to get over and gates to get through. Hope you enjoy the walk.
Leisurely Leader: David Distance : 8 miles
Leave the car park and turn left along the road towards the centre of Malham for about fifty yards past the Wesleyan chapel built in 1865, Malham Methodist Church. Just short of the Buck Inn, turn right off the road over the footbridge. Once over the footbridge turn right along the wide gravelled path, through a wooden gate and continue ahead, now heading to Janet’s Foss.
We then enter into the beautifully picturesque National Trust owned wooded ravine, which eventually leads up to Janet’s Foss. We take the path that climbs away up to the left of the waterfall to pass out through a kissing gate turning right onto a lane. As the road bends around to the right, follow the footpath sign for Goodale Scar to the left passing along the very broad path, initially passing through the Goodale Scar private campsite. Keep on the path as it draws around the corner to reveal the Scar itself.
After spending some time admiring the scenery, we make our way to Malham Tarn. We then head to Langscar Gate and make our way back to Malham.
Not very many steep bits which makes a change for my walks!!
Easy Leader: Susan Distance: 4.5 – 5.5 miles
Leaving the car park we go over Smithy Bridge and turn onto the Pennine Way for a short walk. We take a public footpath and head for Janet’s Foss walking alongside a pretty beck. After climbing up the side of Janet’s Foss we can either do a dog leg to Gordale Scar (which makes the walk 5.5 miles) or we can go straight over Gordale Bridge and then a short steep climb up Dales High Way – taken at a steady pace with short stops whenever needed.
We head downhill on a minor road to Gordale Lane, past the YMCA and follow a footpath that leads to the foot of Malham Cove. From here we head back taking a footpath that passes Malham Beck then onto Cove Road and back to Malham Village.
NOTES ON THE AREA
The exact derivation of the name Malham is not clear, but it may mean a stony or gravelly place, a name which would be in keeping with much of its surrounding area. In the Domesday Book the name is given as Malgum. In any event there has been a settlement at Malham for well over a thousand years and human habitation in the area for perhaps three thousand. Today it is without doubt the most popular village in the National Park with one million visitors each year. The present bridge which marks the centre of the village is eighteenth century but incorporates much of an earlier packhorse bridge of the seventeenth, while there are three clapper bridges of earlier origin.
The Middle Craven Fault, running roughly east to west just north of Malham, marks the southern limit of the Great Scar Limestone, for the land to the south of it is of a very different character. Malham Cove and the valley in front of it were created when glacial melt waters ran down the steep hillside produced by the fault and eroded back into the edge of the limestone bed. It is a magnificent sight; a great natural amphitheatre with sheer, and in parts overhanging walls tapering back into the hillsides on each side. The depression in the centre of the cliff was originally the lip of a waterfall, about three times higher than any existing fall in the Dales today. Not since the early years of the nineteenth century however has any water been known to flow over it. At the top of the cliff is a limestone pavement. The cracks in it are caused by the action of water eroding the narrow splits which naturally occur in limestone. Probably the rainwater falls down the cracks and goes down into the rock below, and that is probably why there is no waterfall coming down the face of the Cove these days.
Malham Tarn, a stretch of open water covering 153 acres, exists in the limestone country because its bed is formed of more ancient impervious rock. The present depth of the tarn, about 14 feet, is maintained by an embankment and sluice gate to the south built by a previous owner, Thomas Lister, in 1791. The Tarn is now owned by the National Trust and managed as a nature reserve by the Field Studies Council.
Gordale Scar has been described as a collapsed cave but is believed to have been created by a furious rush of water as vast quantities of ice melted at the end of the last glacial period. Within the Gorge, the 160 ft high cliffs protrude at the top, at one point coming within 50 ft of each other.
Foss is a name used for a waterfall and Janet, or Jennet, is said to be queen of the local fairies. She lived, or lives, in the far from comfortable quarters of a cave behind the waterfall. The fan of white water was created when the limestone bedrock was dissolved and eroded by the action of water, and then redeposited on mosses growing on the lip of the waterfall as a fragile screen of porous limestone known as Tufa.