How to walk to Pen y Ghent

Walk Directions (ONLY to be used in conjunction with a map)

1. Beginning from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Pay and Display Car Park in Horton in Ribblesdale (W3W above) head out of the entrance to the car park and turn right, walking along the pavement until you reach the church (on your left).

2. Cross the road here and head along the pavement running along the outside of the church, cross the beck and then immediately turn left down a lane. Continue up the lane, keeping the beck on your left hand side. The lane bends around to the right and heads gradually upwards until you reach a farm and a signpost pointing left through a wooden gate and across the farm yard.

3. Head through the gate and across the farmyard towards a metal gate. Next to this are some steps heading up to the wooden footpath gate which has a yellow footpath waymarker on it. Head through the gate and turn left. At the date of climbing, the footpath here was undergoing some pretty significant maintenance, which means the path is wide, clear and very easy to follow.

4. Continue upwards on this path. It more or less follows the wall (on your left) all the way up to the final ascent to the summit. On the climb, you will have views of the craggy summit ahead of you.

5. At the end of the first ascent, you will reach a gate through the wall ahead and a junction of footpaths and a signpost pointing to Pen y Ghent. Here, turn left. You will see the rocky climb up ahead. This part of the climb requires some scrambling as the path heads up steeply. At the top of the scramble, the path then levels out and becomes a wide clear flagged path that takes you to the trig point.

6. Pass the trig point on your right and take the gate in the wall to your left signposted Pennine Way, Yorkshire Three Peaks. Head through the wall and follow the wide stony track that begins to gradually descend from the summit.

7. The path will pass through two gates. After the second, you will reach a crossroads of footpaths. Your return route to Horton in Ribblesdale is on the left, heading through the gate. BUT if you’d like to go and see Hull Pot whilst you are here, you need to take a right for a short detour (detour start point What 3 Words: lifeboats.trainer.variation)

8. After around a quarter of a mile, you will see a MASSIVE crater in the ground. This is Hull Pot. In wet weather you will be treated to a little waterfall into the hole. In VERY wet weather you might be lucky enough to see Hull Pot Beck in full flow which creates an even more spectacular waterfall, and in extremely wet conditions, the pot become a lake and completely fills up (this is in extreme and prolonged wet weather when the ground is saturated, so is more likely to happen during the winter months). Whenever you visit, take care not to go near the edge. Limestone is slippery!

9. Head back to the crossroads from point 7.

10. Head through the gate in the wall signposted Public Bridleway: Horton in Ribblesdale and literally follow the track all the way back to the village. Right at the end there is a little junction in footpaths before you get back into the village. Make sure you head straight on through the five bar gate (don’t turn left).

11. Turn right onto the pavement next to the road at the end and then return to the car park.

Last walked March 2024.