The track to this classic countryside strikes above Clapham Beck, passing opposite Ingleborough Cave and Trow Gill, before circling the head of the Dale to gain Moughton Scars – a gigantic limestone pavement blessed with magnificent views. The return along Crummack Dale includes the dramatically perched Norber Stones – boulders left isolated by glacial deposition.
[1] Turn right from the car park (SD745692) to the bend before the church. Fork right here along the waymarked bridleway to Austwick. This passes through tunnels, part of the landscaping of Ingleborough Hall, before rising beside a wood. At the wood’s end, go left on the Pennine Bridleway for Selside. The wooded Clapdale hides Clapham Beck; at one point the entrance to Ingleborough Cave is discernable. Reaching a gate, there’s a view into Trow Gill, a deep limestone gorge, which marks the end of this walled trackway.
[2] Turn right onto the grassy track, drifting left to a higher gate, then continuing ahead to a walled corner. Just beyond this, fork ahead-right along the rising grassy path, shortly passing-by a large cairn on your left, backed by a distant horizon of Ingleborough. Stick with the widening main path. In 100m fork left, remaining on the main trod past low limestone bluffs on your immediate left. Keep ahead-right at another fork before a grassy bridleway joins sharply from your right. Views across to Moughton Scars open out here. Follow the wall on your right to reach Sulber Gate.
[3] Use the small handgate on the right here and drop down the steep path that drifts gradually away from the precipitous headwall of Crummack Dale. This levels in 100m or so and curls right into a shallow declivity cutting through the distinctive limestone pavement of Thieves Moss. Bear right on the grassy path and then bend left alongside a wall to reach a ladder-stile at Beggar’s Stile.
[4] Don’t climb this. Instead, tackle the thin path rising left to gain the edge of the lunar landscape of Moughton Scars. The next kilometre is a memorable stroll across and into this alien landscape. It’s difficult going in places and certainly very slippery when wet. The views eastwards reach distant Pen-y-Ghent beyond the invisible valley of Ribblesdale, but don’t miss the scenes at your feet. Between the limestone blocks (clints) are deep fissures (grikes) teeming with wildflowers, ferns and dwarf trees – a landscape in miniature. A braided path roughly follows the cliff-edge.
[5] Above Capple Bank the path veers east beside a wall to reach a neat cairn. Turn back-right just beyond this onto a good path that takes you off the Scar and down into Crummack Dale. You’ll soon join an old walled track beyond a gate. At the left-bend use the ladder-stile right, cross the footbridge and drift left along the path beside the wall. Climb the ladder-stile on your right just before the end of the field and go left, using a line of ladder-stiles to reach a rough lane at a junction. Walk ahead.
[6] About 200m past the driveway for Sowerthwaite Farm, turn right on the path marked ‘Norber’. Shortly afterwards, you’ll re-enter access land over a high stone-step stile (100m past a fallen one) and bear left beside the wall, soon reaching a fingerpost. Turn right here up to the curious, pedestal-like Norber Stones which pepper the limestone plateau, deposited by melting ice-sheets that moved these gritstone blocks from higher up Crummack Dale. Return to the fingerpost and go right for Clapham. Beyond a stile and wall-end, bear left on the field path to a ladder-stile into Thwaite Lane. Turn right to make your way back into Clapham.