A pleasant, easy-to-follow 4.5-mile walk around Ingleton Waterfalls with the impressive Ingleborough as the backdrop

Fact File:

Start: car park of Ingleton Waterfalls Walk (signposted from the centre of village)

Distance and time: 4.5 miles, 2.5 hours (but you can take longer to appreciate the scenery)

Going: easy

Map: OS Outdoor Leisure 2 Yorkshire Dales Western. Map not really necessary, however.

Admission to walk: £6 adults, £3 children, £14 family ticket (two adults, three children under 16). The walk is open all year round (closed Christmas Day) from 9am to dusk.

Toilets and refreshments: toilets at the start and main car park, refreshments in galore Ingleton, plus cafe on the route

The Ingleton waterfalls walk is one that restores the soul.

Walking up the wooded valley of the River Twiss and back down the equally leafy, winding valley of the River Doe in full summer is a glorious sight.

It sometimes gets a bit crowded on the footpaths and steep steps, but the views on offer certainly explain why.

Starting at the entrance to the waterfalls car park, signposting is good so it’s a walk where you really have to go some to get lost.

Footpaths are well maintained for the most part, and there are lots of handrails and signs warning of the possibility of ice in winter.

Carrying upstream you’re accompanied by the sound of rushing and crashing water as you head into Pecca Glen and climb up past Pecca Falls and the Twin Falls.

Every corner of this walk provides a view but few are more captivating than the magnificent Thornton Force, a 14 metre sheet of white water toppling over a lip of horizontal limestone which rests on vertical slate, with a narrow layer of pebbles compressed between the two – evidence of a beach over which the sand washed hundreds of millions of years ago.

Carrying upstream past the gentle cascade of Raven Ray, a footbridge crosses the Twiss. From here, the river heads west through the fields with Leck Fell as a distant backdrop before swinging sharp north and becoming Kingdale Beck.

The route now lies away from it, up a well-trodden footpath to meet Twistleton Lane, paved wtih chunky, ankle-jarring hardcore in the middle but comfortable on its grassy verges. To the left, rising steeply, is Twistleton Scar End on the southerly slopes of Whernside. Ahead, across teh valley passing Twistleton Hall farm, is the busy car park of White Scar Cave alongside the Ingleton-Ribblehead road with the nearby dark scar of Skerwith Quarry which provides hard gritstone for road surfaces.

Beyond them, dominating the landscape for miles around, is the fine profile of Ingleborough.

A clear path leads to Oddie’s Lane, the Roman road which stays close to the River Doe as it heads north and becomes Chapel Beck on its way to Chapel-le-Dale.

This route, though, lies across the road and down past Beezley’s (a farm) to join the riverside walk back.

The Doe twists and tumbles downstream often through narrow gorges and sometimes speeding up over foaming fall, then slowing for a while in gloomy pools. The river eventually opens up into a wide pool near a pebble beach, and then the path leaves the water for a while, emerging above it for yet another magnificent view across the grassy hillocks left by quarrying toward Ingelton’s landmark church.

Step by step

1. From waterfalls official car park, follow the path upstream on the western bank of River Twiss. Stick with this path as it crosses and re-crosses river and falls, passing a refreshment hut and continuing to pass Thornton Force

2. Go up the path on the left of the Force, and continue along the path past Raven Ray to cross a footbridge. Walk up the path beyond the gate into Twistleton Lane

3. Turn right and walk along the lane, eventually going through the gate toward Twistleton Farm and passing to the north of farm buildings to another gate into a field. Continue along the path as it descends to a gate into Oddie’s Lane

4. Cross this lane and walk down to turn right, passing Beezley’s farm, then left to enter the wood above Beezely Falls. Follow this path down through the wood until it swings away left from the river, eventually continues south above it back into Ingleton. Follow the road back to the car park from here.

* Please respect the countryside and private land. Anyone embarking on these walks does so at their own risk and the Craven Herald can take no responsibility for the complete accuracy of the route