The above video takes you around the Attermire Scar from Settle walk in full and includes places to eat and drink at the end of the video.
A circular walk from Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. From Settle the walk follows the Malham path over to Attermire Scar. From there it heads around past Victoria cave and on to Victoria cave, before returning through fields back to Settle.
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Parking: | Car park in Settle off B4680 next to a garage and near the two churches (grid reference SD 819 638). |
Directions: | Google Maps: get directions here / What3words: liquid.sleepers.suffix |
Walk distance: | 5 miles (8 Km) |
Estimated walk time: | 2 hours 15 minutes |
Height climbed: | 360 metres |
Grade: | 2-B: A medium length walk that requires modest uphill walking |
Peaks / summits: | None |
Map: | Ordnance Survey - Explorer OL2 (Yorkshire Dales - Southern & Western Area) Buy this map from Ordnance Survey |
Walk features: | Birds, Cafes, Flowers, Geographic feature, Hills or Fells, Views, Wildlife |
Facilities / refreshments: | Pubs, cafés and toilets in Settle. Toilets on the car park |
Nearest town: | Walk starts in Settle |
Local self-catering accommodation: | View self-catering accommodation close to the start of this walk from Sykes Holiday Cottages or from Holidaycottages.co.uk |
Walk Tags: | Settle, Settle walk, Yorkshire, Yorkshire Dales, Yorkshire Dales walk, Constitution Hill, Attermire Scar, Victoria Cave, Jubilee Cave, Warrendale Knots, Stainforth Scar, Stainforth, Royal Oak Hotel |
As you exit the car park, you'll notice the railway viaduct behind you. Walk along the road in the opposite direction, away from the viaduct. When you reach the Royal Oak Hotel, turn left into the market square.
Settle Market Square
Look for Constitutional Hill, the road on the left-hand side of the marketplace. The signpost for Constitution Hill is a bit further, just after some black railings.
Continue up the hill for a further fifty yards and follow the road around to the left, following the sign for Bowscales Yard at the T-junction. Just past this sign, there is another sign for Constitution Hill on the side of a house. About fifty yards past this house, where the road flattens, turn up the rough walled track off to the right of the road by a telegraph pole following the Pennine Bridleway sign for Langcliffe 1½ miles.
The walled track heads off to the right
The track climbs uphill and very quickly affords good views back down to the market town of Settle and Giggleswick. The lane begins to flatten, and a gate is passed through on the lane by a ruined farmhouse. From here, the lane is only walled on the left-hand side. About fifty yards ahead, there is a signpost for "Malham 5 miles".
Signpost for Malham
Turn right at this signpost and head steeply uphill on the left-hand side of the wall. The views back down to Settle improve as more height is gained.
Looking back down to Settle
Walk up this grassy hill for about four hundred yards, then bear diagonally left, whilst still climbing, to head over about fifty yards to a well-defined, wide grassy path alongside a wall. This path is then followed alongside the wall, which is at the bottom of the crags to the left.
Follow the path towards a small gate in the wall that crosses the path. Go through a small gap in this wall just to the left of the gate and continue ahead.
Gap in the wall next to the gate
Forty yards past this gate, the path forks. Take the left-hand fork, keeping near to the wall. Continue ahead through the gap in the next wall that crosses the path and continue to pull into a wall.
Head downhill, keeping by the left-hand side of the wall.
The path alongside the wall with Attermire Scar ahead
Pass over the wooden stile and continue on alongside the wall.
Stile over the wall with Attermire Scar ahead
As more stones start to appear in the grassy path underfoot, the path splits. Take the left-hand fork here, following the stony path that bends around to the left. After a short climb, the path pulls in alongside the wall.
When you reach the wooden gate in the wall, pass through it and turn left to follow the gravel path that now runs along the right-hand side of the wall. Follow the path, that turns grassy underfoot.
Pass through the gate stile
Looking up at Attermire Scar from the gate
Follow the grassy path that eventually pulls into a corner of a wall. We head around the corner, continuing along the right-hand side of the wall, basically continuing on the line you were walking in.
Wide grassy path that heads around to the right-hand side of the wall ahead
Pass through another wooden gate and again continue on by the side of the wall.
After about 150 metres, you'll see a sketchy path heading up to the right. If you want to visit Victoria Cave, you can take a short detour up this path to reach it. There used to be a sign here warning you not to go inside the cave and showing information on how the cave was formed.
Sketchy path uphill to the right off the main path up to Victoria Cave
Entrance to Victoria Cave
View back along the path from Victoria Cave
If you have visited the cave, head back down to the path below and continue straight ahead alongside the wall in the direction you were previously walking away from Attermire Scar. Go through a stile in the wall and drop down fifteen yards further onto a farm track.
Where the path reaches the road, route back to Settle is left, Jubilee Cave is up to the right
The route home goes through the metal gate immediately on the left, but a small detour of about two hundred yards can be made by turning right up the farm track and walking up to Jubilee Cave, which lies just to the right of the track.
Jubilee Cave
Having visited Jubilee Cave, return to this spot and pass through the gate. Follow the wide farm track downhill for three-quarters of a mile until it passes over a cattle grid by a gate and comes out on the road.
From the cattle grid, there is an excellent view across to Stainforth Scar and Stainforth below it. About fifty yards past the cattle grid, where the track meets the road, there is a footpath off to the left signed "Pennine Bridleway Settle 2 miles".
Upon meeting the road, the footpath back to Settle is off to the left
Following this sign, go through the wooden gate and continue straight ahead on the footpath, which heads to the right-hand side of the wall. As the path bends around the trees to the left, Giggleswick Scar can be seen ahead.
After a couple of hundred yards, the footpath leaves the first set of trees and heads about seventy-five yards in the same direction, straight across a field heading for the junction of two walls. Go through a small wooden gate at the junction of these walls and continue ahead on a well-marked path.
Go through another wooden gate upon leaving the trees and continue on the grassy path which slowly descends down to another gate.
Heading back along the path to Settle
Go through it and continue ahead on the left-hand side of a wall. Settle is now clearly visible down below. Continue ahead over another stile, and eventually, a wall comes in from the left to form a short-walled grassy lane.
Walled path with Settle ahead
Pass through a wooden gate and continue ahead. After a short time, the familiar Malham sign is reached; that was the start of the first real climb of the walk. Continue past this sign, back through the gate and back into the walled track.
Continue down the walled track, pass back through a wooden gate and continue down the walled track back down to the road.
Heading back down the walled track into Settle
Upon reaching the road, turn left down Constitution Hill and follow this back down into the marketplace. Turn right back onto the main road opposite the Royal Oak Hotel, and the car park is a further two hundred yards on the left-hand side.
For a more detailed description of this walk and more photographs, check out this Attermire Scar from Settle walk.
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