This month’s coach trip, on Saturday 11th October, takes us to Clapham, in the Yorkshire Dales. A delightful area of limestone scenery and many specialist species. There will be a choice of walks of different levels of difficulty. All will start by entering the Ingleborough Estate, formerly home to the Farrer family, its most famous member being the explorer, plantsman and seed collector Reginald Farrer who introduced many alpine and exotic plants and trees to Britain
Booking needed, please: Click here to email RFNS Bookings
Coach trip to Clapham, YorkshireDales – Leaders: Rick and Karen Cowley
Trow Gill entrance
Coach leaves Morrisons SupermarketCar Park in Heywood * at 9.00 am and leaves Clapham at 5pm.
There will be no stop on the way as the journey will be less than 1 ½ hours and there are plenty of facilities atour destination.
Today you will have the opportunity to study Geology as well as Natural History.
The coach takes us to the small village of Clapham on the south west corner of theYorkshire Dales National Park. It has toilets, a cafe, pub, a few shops and an ancient church, with a lovely waterfall and beck tumbling through the village.
There will be a choice of walks of different levels of difficulty. All will start by entering the IngleboroughEstate, formerly home to the Farrer family, its most famous member being the explorer, plantsman and seed collector Reginald Farrer who introduced many alpine and exotic plants and trees to Britain. Entrance Charge is £2.50per person – by cash or card.
1. EASY WALK 2 ½ miles return via Ingleborough Cave.
Enter theIngleborough estate onto the Nature Trail. Walk uphill on a slight gradient between the Lake and woods on a well graded track. Agood range of native and exotic plants, ferns and mosses can be seen pluswoodland birds. There are regularly spaced seats and Interpretation Boards whichexplain points of historical, wildlife and geological interest. Find out why exoticRhododendrons requiring acid soils can grow well here in the middle of theCraven Limestone! After leaving the woodland it’s a short distance toIngleborough Cave alongside a beck where we often see dipper and grey wagtail.This is an excellent place for a picnic.
Those whowant to enter Ingleborough Cave can do so at any time, followinga self-guided route – although there is usually an Estate Guide underground atweekends. Charges: Adult£17.50; Senior/ Student £15.00 – This includes the Entrance to the estate.
EXTENSIONTO LOOK AT TROW GILL walking a further 750 metres beyondthe cave brings you to a dramatic gorge. This is a rougher track. Climbing TrowGill itself, which leads on to the deep pothole Gaping Ghyll and eventually tothe summit of Ingleborough, is only forexperienced hill walkers – and you won’t have time today!
Return tothe village by retracing your steps.
A“tramper” or electric buggy can be reserved in advance for free from the estate .There are 2 time slots – morning and afternoon – but the manager told us youcan book both slots and use the tramper all day within the estate grounds.Booking is via the Cave website
Tramper Bookings – IngleboroughEstate Nature Trail
The tramperis too large to go into the Cave but there is a manual wheelchair available there if you enquire in advance.
photo: Rick & Karen Cowley
2. MEDIUM WALK – 3 miles return
Follow the easy route to Ingleborough Cave/ Trow Gill and return via Clapdale Lane toClapham village. There is a short steep ascent to Clapdale farm and then a stonytrack downhill with fine views to the surrounding hills and Limestone Scars andchance to see farmland birds and winter thrushes.
3. LONGER OPTIONS– self guided 5 miles. We’ll provide maps.
An opportunity to leave the Nature trail to explore open limestone country andreach the Norber erratics via Long Lane and Thwaite Lane. This is one of the finest groups of glacial erratic boulders in Britain, over 100 of them, which were depositedby melting ice sheets at the end of the last ice age, around 12,000 years ago. Mostlymoderate gradients except for the steep incline up to Long Lane but it willentail the crossing of ladder stiles and going through 2 short tunnels. Theremay be cattle in the open fields.
The trip is open to friends and family. But please remind your friends that : Our trips arerun by our Members for Members. Everyone joins our excursions at their ownrisk. The full statement on our liability may be read on our website Disclaimer – Rochdale FieldNaturalists’ Society
*The coach will leave promptly at 9.00am from MORRISON’S CAR PARK Dawson Street, Heywood,OL10 4PN. Park near the petrol station. If anyone is going there by bus the 471between Rochdale, Bury and Bolton runs about every 10 minutes. The stop is onlya couple of minutes away from the supermarket and you can catch it outsideRochdale Railway Station.
The cost of the coach is £20. Please pay your£20 beforehand by bank transfer : Sort code 05-07-67 Account number 60931963and use your name as reference. Then email rfnsbookings@gmail.com to book your place or with any queries.Please note your place is not reserved until you receive a reply to that email.
If unavoidable, cheques should be made payable to “Rochdale Field Naturalists’ Society”.