Kisdon Force and the Keld Waterfalls

Kisdon Force is a pair of cascades on the River Swale inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park, about 500m downstream of the hamlet of Keld, that Wikipedia gives as dropping 10m in two steps. Keld sits at the head of Swaledale, which Wikipedia describes as the crossing point of the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Way, and its Methodist and Congregational chapels, school and literary institute date from the late nineteenth century, when lead mining was at its height in the dale. The gorge exists because of the ice: the moraine left by the retreating glacier, Wikipedia records, blocked the Swale’s original course on the west side of the hill of Kisdon and forced it east, which is why the river now runs around the fell in a gorge and falls over limestone ledges at Keld.

The walk visits the falls in sequence. The gps-routes.co.uk description starts at Catrake Force, a staircase of four small drops, passes East Gill Force with its upper drop of 4.5m, and reaches Kisdon Force, which sits in Kisdon Force Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest of 38 hectares according to Wikipedia. The detour down to the lower falls is the awkward part: walkingintheyorkshiredales.co.uk calls it rough and a bit of a scramble, and Wikipedia warns that the stones around the falls are often wet and slippery. From the river the circuit continues to Muker and returns on the Pennine Way, which Wikipedia says reaches 420m on the eastern shoulder of Kisdon between Thwaite and Keld, the hill’s own summit at 499m being left to one side.

The gps-routes.co.uk description gives the full circuit with Muker as 11km, with an optional extension to Wain Wath Force, and a shorter waterfalls circuit of about 8km from Keld. Either is a half-day on paths that suits a walker who wants water and woodland on the Pennine Way without a summit. It does not suit very young children at the Kisdon Force detour, which the Muker route description advises against for that reason, nor anyone wanting height; that walker should take the Pennine Way over Great Shunner Fell, which comes down to Keld by way of Thwaite. For a single-drop waterfall in neighbouring Wensleydale, Hardraw Force is about 1km there and back from the Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw, on private land with a charge. The base for this end of the dale is Reeth.