On Sunday 12th September a group of us set out a walk from the village of Leck. With me were Simon C, Carmen and Annie.
Walking on air towards Gragareth
Leck is a small village close to the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales just off the A65, 2 miles south east of Kirby Lonsdale. Leaving the car parked at Leck church village we followed Leck Beck several miles northwards as far as Ease Gill.
The dry stream bed of Ease Gill has some tricky sections. That day the rock was slightly damp making it greasy and slippery. The scrambling starts with an awkward step up to a higher level. Despite a pile of stones put there for a leg up, which I kicked over several times, Simon was the only one of us to make this first move. Walking round this obstacle the rest of us met Simon again and continued up the gill until our progress was again impeded by another difficult step. The technique here was to stand on footholds to bring your shoulder level with a ledge, reach out horizontally to handholds an arms stretch away, pull up and with a bellyflop land in the polished bowl of a ledge, legs flailing. Difficulties were not over, the next section was a greasy chimney, here we had to take our boots off and climb in our socks to get any friction, much easier.
Progress up the gill was now more of a walk and we continued upward until we came to deep hidden pool. Here we left the gill and headed north and west across Casterton Fell towards Bull Pot Farm.
This area is the centre of activities by cavers trying to join up the cave systems of Yorkshire Lancashire and Cumbria.
From Casterton Fell we began a long trudge over tussocky grass uphill to a lunch stop on Crag Hill. Here we had views over to Morecambe bay and the Lake District. Once on top we headed over to Great Coum, the northern most point of the walk. Next we headed south west along a long ridge with Ease Gill on one side and Kingsdale on the other.
On the ridge we passed the county stone where the ancient county borders of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Westmorland meet. Also on route were the slight rises Green Hill and Gragareth and more views. We could see all three peaks, Whernside, Penyghent and Ingleborough in one vista. There were particularly good views of Ingleborough.
Ingleborough
Eventually we descended the tip of the ridge and headed for Masongill, Ireby and hence the end of the walk, Leck Church where we had parked the car.
The walk was 16 miles and took us 7 ½ hours including stops and scrambling. Although we did see some people on the hills the area is generally a lot quieter than other parts of the dales and it is well worth exploring.
Check these links;
http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/easegill/
http://v-g.me.uk/Trips/T0562/T0562.htm
Peter Evans
Apart from the long slog up the hill, it was a grand day out!
Lots of photos here:
http://climbing.me.uk/Leckdale/index.html