Malham Cove, Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss Circuit

Malham Cove is a gently curving cliff of white limestone, 70m high according to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which says it formed along the Middle Craven Fault and was eroded back from that line by water and ice over millions of years. When the glaciers melted the ground was still frozen, so the meltwater could not drain underground and a massive waterfall ran over the top; the water now flows underground. Gordale Scar, about 1.6km east by the authority’s grid references, lies on the same fault, where meltwater cut down through faults in the rock and left a deep gorge with a soft tufa screen across its waterfalls. The third stop, Janet’s Foss, is a woodland waterfall on the National Trust’s Malham Tarn Estate, and the Trust repeats the legend that Janet, or Jennet, Queen of the Fairies, lived behind it.

The authority’s Malham Landscape Trail joins all three into one circuit from the National Park Centre car park in the village, which is pay and display and seven miles from Settle station by the National Trust’s reckoning. The trail runs to Janet’s Foss, then Gordale Scar, then the cove. The National Trust warns that the woodland path to the foss turns very uneven and rocky, with steps that can be slippery when wet. The last 600m into Gordale Scar is well surfaced and level, and the authority asks walkers not to climb the footpath up the tufa because it damages it; an alternative is available from the visitor centre. At the cove, about 400 stone steps lead beside the cliff to the limestone pavement on top, and the face holds a nesting pair of peregrine falcons, viewable in the summer months.

The authority gives the trail as 4.5 miles, or 7.2km, and three hours; Walking Englishman puts the climbing on a near-identical circuit at 211m, and calls it the most popular walk in the Dales. The circuit suits families with children who can manage steps, and anyone wanting limestone scenery without a summit; it does not suit walkers who cannot manage rocky steps on the Janet’s Foss path or the cove stairs. For them the authority’s Miles without Stiles route reaches the foot of the cove on compact stone, no steeper than 1 in 8 after the first 25m, and anyone who wants a hill rather than a cliff should take Pen-y-ghent instead.