Malham, Gordale Scar, Malham Tarn and Malham Cove

Though Iron Age tools have been discovered in nearby caves, the village itself dates from the 7th and 8th centuries when the Angles established a wooden township. In the Middle Ages it was divided down the centre (land to the west of Malham Beck belonging to Fountains Abbey, and east to Bolton Abbey). Behind the Old Smithy, a stone footbridge leads out into the upper countryside through a network of small fields marked out by drystone walls containing old stone barns with 18th- and 19th-century lintels. Near the limpid waters of Gordale Beck, the route passes stands of oak and sycamore where green woodpeckers drum from March to May.

Soon you reach Janet's Foss, a waterfall with a modest 30-foot drop providing a fine spectacle. According to local legend, Janet is queen of the fairies living in a cave behind the wall (foss being the Viking word for waterfall, reflecting Scandinavian influence). The pool below was once used for dipping sheep after workers fortified themselves with strong ale. Passing Gordale Bridge (a narrow limestone packhorse arch), you reach the dramatic gorge of Gordale Scar, where two waterfalls cascade into a cleft 150 feet deep and just 30 feet wide at the base with sheer, overhanging walls.

Water issues from a hole in the rock; prior to a great flood in 1730 that burst through damming rocks, there was a lake above. You scramble up the tufa tongue (light airy limestone precipitated from lime-rich water) to the base of the upper falls and climb steps to the top, emerging into the light of the open moor above.

The path leads through jagged outcrops of gleaming white stone to join the road beneath Seaty Hill (crowned by a Bronze Age round barrow). At Street Gate crossroads, Mastiles Lane runs across Malham Moor from Ribblesdale to Kilnsey (dating from the 13th century when Fountains Abbey monks drove cattle and sheep to Lake District lands). The walk bears left around a walled plantation to the shores of Malham Tarn, a lake whose existence is owed to an impermeable Silurian slate bed. Its western wetlands form an important wildfowl nature reserve, and Malham Tarn House to the north is a National Trust field study centre.

The route follows the tarn's outflow beck as it suddenly disappears into potholes in the limestone at Water Sinks, continuing underground into the dry valley of Watlowes. At the end of the dry valley is a limestone pavement formed by rainwater widening hairline vertical cracks (clints and grikes), providing a sheltered microenvironment for spleenworts and hart's-tongue fern.

From the pavement there is an easy descent into the rock amphitheatre of Malham Cove (inspiring poets Wordsworth and Ruskin), with vertical 300-foot cliffs festooned with rock climbers, nesting swifts, and peregrine falcons. While its ancient waterfall is normally dry (though famously flowing again briefly during Storm Desmond), the bright clear stream appearing at the bottom — Malham Beck — comes from disused mines on Pipelaw Hill to the west.

From the foot of Malham Cove, a gentle walk along the valley bottom and road past Town Head Farm returns you to Malham village for well-deserved refreshments.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.