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Great Knoutberry Hill was one of those hills that had been on the radar for a while now, every time we wandered up Whernside we could see this rather gentle looking hill and thought it would be nice to have a day exploring it's slopes.
We hadn't been out to the hills since the end of January due to Denise having an important operation where part of the recovery process was strict instruction not to do anything over strenuous which meant no hillwalking for eight weeks
or so
As time progressed Denise was recovering well, her confidence grew and she thought she'd be ok to have a walk in the Dales, something that we were familiar with and knew what to expect so, last weekend, we had a gentle walk up Whernside which proved to be just the ticket, we had a good day out and Denise felt she was ok to do more.
Great Knoutberry Hill was shouting at us on the way down so we decided we'd explore as soon as we got the chance
Watching the forecast last week we could see that Saturday was going to be ok weather wise so we decided that
Great Knoutberry Hill and Wold Fell was finally going to get some attention
We had planned to walk from Ribblehead to do GKH but decided that would be a bit much under the circumstances so after a bit of research I found that there's a handy layby just by the Dent Head Viaduct so decided to set off from there.
When we arrived most of the available space was taken up by two campervans poorly parked, where five or six cars could park there was only space for one and that was taken
, we had noticed one or two spots off the road on the way so we turned round and headed for one of those, we got parked in one above the viaduct, well off the road so we were happy
The weather was a bit grey, very hazy but pleasantly warm. We walked along the road as far as Stone House and turned right onto the Pennine Bridleway.
This takes you under the Arten Gill Viaduct which is an impressive looking Victorian structure similar to the Dent Head one.
The walk continues fairly easily up a gentle incline and eventually levels off at around SD792861. We turned left here to continue along the Pennine Bridleway where it soon becomes a nice grassy track, easy to walk on, the weather was getting brighter so there were some views opening up through the haze.
Inglborough
Whernside looking bigger the cloud formations were confusing the view
Dentdale
When we arrived at a sheepfold around SD777874 we turned right off the track and followed a feint path alongside a fence, this is a bit wet but the gradient is relaxed
we had a nice gentle walk following the fence all the way to the summit.
There's a trigpoint on the top and a shelter on the other side of the fence accessible by climbing over two stiles, we went to the shelter to see if we could escape the cool breeze but not today
I managed to get some hazy photo's of the views towards Pen-Y-Ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside but they were subdued by the conditions, we may come back on a better day just to compare, it's nice to see familiar hills from a different view point.
We could see the way up our next objective, Wold Fell
We left the summit following the fence all the way down to where it meets the track coming up from Stone House
Once back on the track we turned right and continued back to the point we'd left it earlier
Here we turned left on to the Pennine Bridleway again to start the walk up Wold Fell.
This was steady on a nice grassy track, easy walking and very pleasant, the Skylarks were chattering away, we saw a couple of Rabbits, the sun was out, it was a really pleasant and relaxing spring day walk in the hills, just right for both of us, we really could do with retiring
Looking back to Great Knoutberry Hill
We arrived at a gate at around SD792849 went through it and turned immediate right to climb up Wold Fell, at the top there's a small cairn,
All around is flat with grass and moss covered clints and grikes so care was needed as not to turn an ankle.
The views were reduced by the large flat summit area
From the top we retraced our steps back to the Pennine Bridleway and turned right to follow it back down to the road.
We followed the road back to the car.
I'm not a great fan of road walking but we found this road to be quiet, not many cars about which was a complete contrast to Ribblehead when we drove past on the way home, there were many many cars parked, some obscuring the road, we definitely found the quieter place to be today.
We had a good day out, we found the less frequented parts of the Dales on a Bank holiday weekend and Denise is up and running for the more challenging days out we've got planned this year, Ullapool at Spring Bank, An Teallach awaits