A day visit to Malham Cove in Yorkshire

On a recent visit to see Emily in Lancaster, we took the opportunity to go over to Settle and Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, about an hours drive from Lancaster or a beautiful days cycle ride (it is on the Dales Highway, Dales Cycleway and also the Pennine Way). Near to Malham is Malham Cove set in a limestone hillside and also a high level tarn within walking distance of the village. I'd known of the tarn since I joined the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) in the late 70's as they had a field station (now a Field Studies Centre) used to study the chemistry and ecology of the tarn. I've never been to Malham but Emily had as part of her walk on the Pennine Way. The plan was to call in at Settle and then drive the short distance to Malham village and then walk to the cove and limestone pavement before heading further north to the tarn, returning to the pavement and then on a different route to descend back to the village for a meal. We were lucky to have a calm and brilliant summer's day for the walk with plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.

The region around Malham is limestone rock and the cove was carved by a 80 m height waterfall  from glacial melt, about 12,000 years ago, wearing a crescent in the limestone leaving a limestone pavement at the top of the waterfall. The waterfall as long since disappeared and only falls in exceptional weather, e.g. in December 2015 it did flow for a while.

Malham Cove with a drystone wall in the foreground. This was taken after descending from the limestone pavement on the way back to Malham village. The pavement is at the top of the near vertical section of the wall. The massive rises further behind the pavement.

We did get a glimpse of the cove as we approached the village but on our walking route, didn't see the limestone face until close to the top with a better view of the whole face as we walked back to the village.

The path through the woods to Janet's Foss

We took the footpath going north-east on a river-side path to woodland and Janet's Foss (Janet's Waterfall) passing a field barn and old rusty swaft-turner, much like the ones we used when I was a youngster.  

Janet's Foss in the dappled shade on our way to the limestone pavement.

The path then left the woodland into open grassland with sheep grazing on the hillside and a ice-cream van at a road bridge. We continued through the pasture, gaining height to walk at the rim of the cove, about 320 m elevation. 

Approaching the limestone wall from the east side we got good views across the cove. The descent path was clear see in the distance.

Helen and Emily on the limestone pavement formed by the erosive action of water on limestone. The fissures make a micro-environment for many plants. The limestone to the north of the plateau continues to rise to a peak of just over 400 m.

Some "Mother of Thyme" in the upland 

We explored the fissured slabs, stepping easily from slab to slab to reach the cliff edge giving views of the crescent rock face and down the river valley to Malham village. After this we made our way to the tarn through Ing Scar (a scar is a ravine), a dried river bed. This started flat and grassy but soon became a narrow rocky path that ascended steeply to a stile and then turned abruptly right to pass towards the tarn.

A view backwards (southerly) though Ing Scar

Helen on the windy path to reach flatter ground.

The tarn itself was a bit of a surprise for me as we didn't get a view until we were almost on it and also I imagined it at a lower elevation and not quite so large. The Field Studies Centre was clear to see on the other side of the tarn.

The cress choked stream outflow from the tarn.

A view across the tarn to the Study Centre, a pleasant spot to rest before the return down hill. 

We returned to the limestone pavement, crossing it from the east to find the path down to the base of the cliff. Here we could see a stream that we followed to see the source, the bottom of the cliff. Apparently this stream is not the one we saw disappear near the outlet from the tarn but is from a different source but passing through the limestone in the same way. I also noticed it was a soft-water, brown in colour from the organic acids from peat. 

There were some climbers on the face; they are allowed to ascend certain routes away from the nesting Peregrine Falcons. We had spotted some Peregrines when we were at the ledge and could still seem them near the cliff top.

The stream emerging from beneath the cliff

The return to the village was straight forward on a well made path following the stream to get a meal by the river side and short drive back.