A relaxed 3-day route of the hills north of Ribblehead using stations on the Settle-Carlisle rail line.
The outward line visits the Grade II listed Ribblehead viaduct and ascends via the line of the rail tunnel towards Blea Moor, a new Dewey 500m top.
The route then descends through the Mossy Bottom forest and joins the Pennine Bridleway (PB) over the shoulder of Wold Fell to Arten Gill Moss for a final climb to Great Knoutberry Hill.
The return descends to rejoin the PB along Galloway Gate and down to Garsdale station.
This was our first visit to Ribblehead and first journey on this famously scenic rail line, a fine way to start the trip.
The relentless arid weather of this summer continues with no real sign of relief and this trip, like the last, was timed to end just before the onset of another 30°C+ heatwave driven by hot air moving north from France. On that last July trip to the Tarrens, we were taken aback by the near-disappearance of normally very reliable water sources and we were lucky to find our anticipated main source running just enough to fill our bottles. Once again our main source was running but, as expected, we had to carry a large weight of water.