Car Parking: Ribblehead Station car park (free).
Start/Finish: Ribblehead Station (grid ref SD 766 789, postcode LA6 3AS)
Meet time: from 10 am.
Start time/time of train: 10.24 from the opposite platform. Cross the railway by way of the foot crossing. Please arrive in time to catch the train. Tickets are purchased on the train.
Description: This is a perennial group favourite walk that takes in some of the best scenery on offer on the Settle – Carlisle railway line. There are two ascents, one at the start of the walk and one half way along over the top of Blea Moor Tunnel. The terrain is a mixture of public bridleways, footpaths, moorland and minor roads.
Route: We meet at Ribblehead Station and board the 10.24 train to Carlisle. The 10-minute journey takes us over Ribblehead Viaduct and through Blea Moor Tunnel, emerging into Dentdale and over two spectacular viaducts before we arrive at Dent Station. The station is the highest railway station in England at 1150 feet above sea level, and is situated in ideal walking country some 4 scenic miles from the village it purports to serve.
After alighting from the train we walk up the ‘Coal Road’ and branch off right along the bridleway that takes us around Great Knoutberry Hill. From here we are high above the valley with spectacular views down Dentdale and over towards Whernside, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks. We reach the bridleway that takes us down to the valley floor, passing underneath Arten Gill Viaduct in its stunning setting on the hillside.
We then continue along the road for a short distance, branching right onto the hillside, opposite Dent Head and towards Blea Moor Tunnel, 1½ miles long. We climb the hillside past the tunnel mouth and continue over the top to Blea Moor, where there are views right back to where we started at Dent. We pass ventilation shafts and spoil heaps and descend to re-join the main footpath next to the railway as it emerges from the tunnel.
The walk continues past the unique aqueduct that carries Force Gill as it runs off Whernside, then along the isolated Blea Moor, past the derelict signalman’s cottage, down to Ribblehead Viaduct, and back along Batty Moss where there are still remnants of the old shanty towns that housed the navvies who built the viaduct in the 1870s; before we reach the Station Inn where there is opportunity for a drink if we require!
High Point: 520 m Great Knoutberry Hill
Ascents: 170 m from Dent Station to Great Knoutberry Hill and 220 m from Dentdale over Blea Moor
Distance: 9½ miles
Time: approx 4½ hours
Grade: Moderate
Leader: Mark 07967 193749. Please text by 9 am on the morning of the walk if you would like to come, ideally by the night before. I cannot receive a mobile phone signal at Ribblehead.
Please bring a packed lunch.
Other options for getting there:
1) You can drive to Dent station and meet us there at 10.30, or
2) You can take the 9.25 train from Carlisle or any of the Settle-Carlisle stations and arrive at Dent at 10.39 to meet us there at the same time our northbound train gets in.
Return by train from Ribblehead after the walk. Please contact Mark before the walk if you wish to do any of these.