It’s been a funny year in many ways. Locked down, isolated, unable to get out and enjoy the Yorkshire hills. How about starting with one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks?
The Yorkshire Three Peaks can be done individually, as a long slow day out or as a challenge to be completed in under ten hours. The ‘full Yorkshire’ is 38.6km and 1,585m in ascent – that’s 24 miles and 5,200 feet ascent in old money. To put it in context, Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, is 1,345m. The Yorkshire Three Peaks is a big day out.
Having completed the challenge twice before in the 2010s, and wanting to get back to it and stretch the old legs, my wife and I decided to exercise our newfound freedom and have a day at Horton in Ribblesdale, with a walk up Pen-y-ghent. For anyone not familiar with this part of the world, the hills in this part of Yorkshire are beautiful and the villages are picturesque. Much of the local economy depends on visitors, both day-trippers and those from further afield who may have to stay for longer. If you want to help support communities such as these, the best way we can do this is to visit and use the facilities in a responsible and considerate manner.
The Three Peaks Challenge 2020 website is an excellent resource for those who want to participate in the full Yorkshire experience. They’re running a series of events in August, September and October this year and there are a limited number of places available. So if you’re itching to get back to fitness and your gym/swimming pool is closed (or still feels unsafe to visit), think Yorkshire, think Three Peaks and go get your walking kit out and get training.
In a normal year, the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge brings approximately 100,000 visitors to Yorkshire. Bear in mind that only around 23,600 people live in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, so the visitors can appear to be a little overwhelming at times, particularly on a Saturday. These visitors, however, raise £6m for charities through their efforts at walking or sometimes, running, the Three Peaks.
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The effect of this number of visitors on local Dales’ communities has not always been welcomed though. Villagers have complained of noise, verbal abuse, urinating and bad parking. In 2018, Richard Welch, a North Yorkshire County councillor for Ribblesdale, complained that the Dales community of Horton in Ribblesdale was facing ‘over tourism’. But this was before Covid-19 changed our world and brought an abrupt halt to life as we had known it. Lockdown has been a game changer.
We have had a spring with very few visitors able to get out and enjoy the very best that Yorkshire has to offer. The residents and businesses of the Dales have had a hard time due to their incomes being severely disrupted due to the virus. The Yorkshire Dales National Park reopened on 4 July. The park website carries reminders of responsible tourism. Neil Heseltine, chair of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority offers detailed advice for everyone thinking of visiting.
If you are able to do so, this is a unique time to consider venturing out to our wilder places after such a long period without human presence. The National Trust is reporting that emboldened wildlife, including raptors, warblers, badgers and otters, appear to have enjoyed the lack of humans on our hills and in our National Parks. The charity is asking people to take care not to disturb the wildlife that they encounter as they return to these areas of outstanding beauty. There is no guarantee that anyone will see any of these wildlife gems on any one visit to the Yorkshire Dales, but there is an undisturbed ambiance in the air that has not been there for many a long year.
As for my own visit to Pen-y-ghent, the car park had plenty of places and for £2 you could not get any better value for money. The ‘Honesty Box’ on the wall of the hotel meant that you can pay your fee without the need for encounters with strangers. The few walkers on the hill were considerate and we all gave each other plenty of room as we passed on the path. The footpath is well maintained with little evidence of erosion from the visitor numbers that have blighted the area in more ‘normal’ times. If you love the wilder places of Yorkshire or indeed any other parts of the UK, and you are a responsible visitor, this may be the opportunity of a lifetime (especially if you can visit on a weekday and are not confined to the weekend traveling).
Enjoy and please remember, take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.
