Ingleton

The 8 km circular gorge walk starts at the Broadwood entrance off Main Street, costs about £10 an adult with parking included and opens from 9am daily. Thornton Force, where the water drops over a cliff you can walk behind the spray of, is the one people photograph. Wear grip; the stone steps stay slick.

The direct route leaves the village past Storrs Common and Crina Bottom farm, roughly 5 km and 600m of ascent to the summit plateau at 723m. Allow four hours return. It is steeper and lonelier than the Horton-in-Ribblesdale side, and the last pull onto the top is a scramble in wind.

On the B6255 Hawes road about a mile and a half from the village, this is Britain's longest show cave. The guided walk runs roughly 80 minutes past underground waterfalls to the Battlefield Cavern, around £13 an adult. Hard hats supplied, low roofs throughout, and it is 8°C in there in July.

The community-run outdoor pool sits by the river below the village, heated and open roughly May to September with a couple of pounds' change on the entry. It is a genuine oddity — a warm 1930s lido in a Dales valley — and the single best thing here for children on a hot afternoon.

Fifteen minutes up the B6255 past Chapel-le-Dale to the 24-arch viaduct on the Settle–Carlisle line. Park at the roadside pull-ins, walk under the arches, and time it for a passing train. The Station Inn and Ribblehead station are right there if you want to arrive by rail instead.

Inglesport on Main Street is a proper climbing and caving shop with a café upstairs; Bernie's a few doors along has fed Dales cyclists for decades and opens early. Between them you can replace a lost head torch, buy an OS Explorer OL2, and eat a full breakfast before 9am.

You will want a car. From Leeds it is about an hour and a half up the A65 from the M6 or via Skipton and Settle; from the M6, leave at junction 34 or 36. The nearest railway station is Bentham, four miles west on the Leeds–Lancaster line, with Clapham five miles east and Ribblehead twelve miles up the B6255 on the Settle–Carlisle. Buses to Settle, Kirkby Lonsdale and Lancaster run only a handful of times a day, finish early and thin out on Sundays outside the summer DalesBus season, so check the timetable before you plan around one. Inside the village everything is a five-minute walk; the Community Centre car park is the main pay-and-display and fills by mid-morning in summer.

Yes, if the weather has been wet. About £10 an adult buys you 8 km of privately maintained path, bridges and steps through two gorges, plus your parking. In a dry August it is a quieter, thinner version of itself and you may feel short-changed. Go early — after 11am on a summer weekend the narrow sections queue.

You can, but the standard 24-mile circuit of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough starts and finishes at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, half an hour's drive east. Plenty of people sleep in Ingleton and drive over for a 6am start. If you only want one summit, Ingleborough straight from the village is the better use of a day.

Bentham, four miles away on the Leeds to Lancaster and Morecambe line, is closest; Clapham is five miles and Ribblehead twelve. None of them has a taxi waiting outside as a matter of course, so book one in advance or arrange a pickup with your guesthouse. Ingleton's own station closed to passengers in 1954.

Some things. The pubs and a café or two keep going, and the Waterfalls Trail opens year-round in daylight hours when conditions allow. White Scar Cave and several cafés cut back or close midweek from November to March, and the outdoor pool is shut from September. Ring ahead rather than driving over on faith.