Settle, Pen-y-ghent and The Ribblehead Viaduct

Having been left at home on Saturday while @bingbabe did her marathon attempt at scaling The Three Peaks, I insisted the next day that I too visit the area without the climbing.

@bingbabe climbed this monster yesterday (below).

‘You can’t scale these mountains’, she claims, and she’s right, my back would not take it.

We duly left at 11:30am enjoying the glorious sunshine, the destination ‘Settle’ which is a country market town in North Yorkshire.

There is a certain Fish and Chip shop which in my personal opinion is in the Top 3 finest in England. If only I had an Android device I could use @eroche’s Let’s Eat app and add it to the database. I will have to pick up a cheap one from somewhere.

After getting our fill, I took a few more snaps of Settle and then we headed for The Ribblehead Viaduct.

I saw some cyclists heading past the Fish and Chip shop, all wearing head gear and no cycle lanes in sight. In the country, cycling is extremely popular in England but cycle lanes are as rare as hare’s teeth. This one is for you @katharsisdrill 

After passing Horton-in-Ribblesdale I was awarded with my first sight of Pen-y-ghent which is the first of the Three Peaks. It was some distance away but I figured even from here that I would not be able to scale it.

@bingbabe’s friend Marites kindly allowed me to use these next THREE photographs which shows what it is like climbing this peak, more like mountaineering to me!

Another 6 miles brought us to our destination of the Viaduct. I appreciate these feats of engineering more as I grow older.

The canals dominated travel in England from the 1830’s until around 1870 when the railways took over. This particular bridge was built in 1874 and cost many lives to make it happen. What could it be have been like for those people who created this?

Its quite a wild and desolate area, but when its weekend and there’s no rain, the people always flock (though you wouldn't think so looking at my snaps)

The weather had deteriorated to the point of me expecting rain, but thankfully it didn’t happen. What we got instead was an overcast view which made the viaduct look quite imposing.

I took some black and white shots as well as colour ones to highlight the different look. At one point a train passed the viaduct, a shame it wasn’t a steam engine.

Walking to the foot of one of the arches you get to see how enormous these actually are.

I took this snap so you can see the size relative to @bingbabe and my daughter. You are looking up over 100 feet to reach the top, it’s quite something.

All photographs were taken by myself or used with permission from the original owner.