Malham Cove and Gordale Scar

What to expect at Malham Cove and Gordale Scar

Malham Cove is a curving wall of Carboniferous limestone about 80 metres high and some 300 metres across, standing at the head of Malhamdale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which was designated in 1954. Geologists read it as the scarp of the Middle Craven Fault, scoured and polished by meltwater at the end of the last glaciation around 12,000 years ago, when a waterfall taller than Niagara poured over the lip; it ran again, briefly, in the December 2015 storms. On top sits one of Britain's finest limestone pavements, its blocks called clints and the fissures between them grikes, where hart's tongue fern and wood anemone shelter from the wind. A mile east, Gordale Scar is a ravine with overhanging walls close to 100 metres tall and two waterfalls stacked in its throat, long argued over as either a collapsed cave system or a meltwater gorge. Turner painted it; Wordsworth wrote about it; Charles Kingsley set part of The Water Babies here.

The classic circuit starts in Malham village and runs anti-clockwise, and it is one of the most satisfying five miles in England. From the National Park Centre you walk south past the Buck Inn, cross the beck and follow a walled lane and riverside path to Janet's Foss, a small waterfall dropping over a screen of tufa into a plunge pool ringed by ash trees; locals swim it in July, and it is very cold. Fifteen minutes further up Gordale Lane the valley closes and the cliffs of Gordale Scar swing overhead like theatre flats. The scramble beside the lower fall is a genuine hands-on climb on wet, polished rock and turns many people back. The alternative is to retrace to the lane, climb Gordale Bridge and cross the fields to the head of the Cove, or approach the Cove from the village on a flat, near-level path and tackle the 400-plus stone steps up its left flank.

From Malham village the base of the Cove is a twenty-minute stroll on a wide, mostly level gravel path, so even people who do not intend to climb anything can stand under the wall and look up at the peregrines. The steps to the pavement are steep, uneven and slick in rain. Beyond the pavement, the Dry Valley of Watlowes leads north to Malham Tarn, England's highest marl lake at 377 metres and a National Nature Reserve, adding roughly an hour each way. Wear boots, not trainers: limestone gets glassy when wet, and the grikes on the pavement are ankle-breakers if you stride across them. There is no cafe on the hill, so carry water. The Pennine Way runs through, which means you will share the path with people carrying very large packs and a look of long-distance concentration.

By car, come off the A65 at Gargrave or Coniston Cold and follow the signed minor roads; from York it is about 60 miles and an hour and three quarters, from Skipton 11 miles and 25 minutes, from Settle 7 miles over the tops. The pay-and-display car park beside the Malham National Park Centre, BD23 4DA, is the only sensible option: expect roughly £5.50 for four hours and around £8 for the day. Verge parking along the lanes clogs the village on bank holidays and is actively discouraged. Public transport is thin but real: the seasonal DalesBus 210 and 211 run from Skipton on Sundays and bank holidays, and a day rover ticket is usually around £8. Skipton station on the Leeds-Carlisle line is the nearest useful railhead; Settle station, on the same route, is closer as the crow flies but has fewer onward links.

The walking costs nothing. Access land, footpaths and the Cove itself carry no admission charge at any time of year, and the RSPB peregrine watchpoint, staffed in spring and early summer with telescopes trained on the nest ledge, is free to look through. Your budget is therefore parking, roughly £8 for a full day, plus whatever you eat. The National Park Centre has free displays and toilets; the village post office and the two pubs, the Lister Arms and the Buck Inn, will take a further £15-£20 a head for lunch. There are no guided-walk booths and no ticket queues. If you are staying locally, note that Malhamdale beds are scarce and priced accordingly in high summer, with village inn rooms often £120-£180 a night, while Settle and Skipton run cheaper and put you 20-30 minutes away by car.

Come early. On a fine Saturday in July the car park fills by 10:00 and the steps up the Cove become a queue. Between 08:00 and 10:00, or after 16:30, you can have the pavement almost to yourself, and the light on the wall is far better at either end of the day. April to July is peregrine season and the best months for the wildflowers in the grikes; May and September give the most reliable combination of long daylight and thin crowds. Winter is beautiful and genuinely hazardous: the steps ice up, Gordale Scar becomes a serious scramble, and daylight is gone by 16:00. Avoid the Easter, May and August bank holiday Mondays entirely unless you arrive before nine. Nothing closes, but the Park Centre trims its hours from November to March.

It suits fit families with children over about seven, hillwalkers, geology students and anyone who wants one big Dales day rather than several small ones. The flat approach to the base of the Cove works for many wheelchair users and buggy pushers as far as the boulder field, but the steps, the pavement and Gordale Scar do not; there is no accessible route to the top. Teenagers tend to love the Gordale scramble and the swimming at Janet's Foss. Dogs must be on leads: there are sheep everywhere and cattle in Gordale in summer. If you have an hour and no boots, walk to the base of the Cove and back and count it a success; do not start the circuit at 15:00 in October.

Fold in Malham Tarn, an hour north over the pavement, or drive to it and walk the shore boardwalk. The Settle-Carlisle railway at Settle, seven miles away, is a fine second half to the day, and Ribblehead Viaduct is 40 minutes on. Grassington, 20 minutes east, has tea rooms and the Dales Countryside feel without the crowds. Skipton, with its castle and its canal-side high street, is 25 minutes south and makes the obvious base for anyone wanting shops, a station and a choice of hotels. The Ingleton Waterfalls Trail is roughly 45 minutes west if you want a second gorge in the same day, though that is a long day on your feet.

Two honest warnings. First, the Harry Potter pilgrimage: a short camping scene from Deathly Hallows Part 1 was shot on the limestone pavement, and people arrive expecting something recognisable. It is a field of grey rock, spectacular on its own terms, with no set, no sign and no marked spot. Second, the Gordale scramble is undersold by guidebooks that call it a scramble; on wet rock, with water running over the holds, it turns back experienced walkers and has produced real injuries. There is no shame in the bypass. Also expect no waterfall at the Cove itself except in extreme flood, a mobile signal that vanishes in the valley bottom, and a car park that on peak Sundays is full before many visitors have had breakfast.

Plan your visit TicketsFree Free entryYes Time neededHalf day WhereSettle Opening hours Open access, daylight hours all year Malham National Park Centre daily 10:00-16:00 (reduced in winter) RSPB peregrine watchpoint at the Cove Apr-Jul, roughly 10:30-16:30 Hotels near Malham Cove and Gordale Scar

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