Pen-y-ghent from Horton in Ribblesdale

Pen-y-ghent is the lowest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks at 694m, the height the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority gave when its rangers finished path repairs on it in December 2025, and Walking Britain calls it the most easily recognised of the three. Wikipedia describes a millstone grit top on a bed of carboniferous limestone, and Walking Britain records the change underfoot on the climb from Horton in Ribblesdale, where the path leaves limestone behind and takes to gritstone. The national park authority gives Horton station, on the Settle to Carlisle line, as close to the start, and Settle is the hub on the same line.

Walking Britain starts at the pay and display car park on the village edge, goes south past the parish church and up the lane to Brackenbottom, and takes a signed path beside a wall in great steps to meet the Pennine Way, which crosses the summit. The last steep pull has a couple of sections that need a little use of the hands, and the top is a plateau with a concrete trig column. The authority’s rangers rebuilt the lower path from Brackenbottom with 80 tonnes of stone blocks and 232 tonnes of aggregate from Horton Quarry, and the authority calls it one of the busiest paths in the Yorkshire Dales, with hundreds of people on it every day in summer.

The way down leaves the Pennine Way for a fainter path across Horton Moor that Walking Britain describes as wet after rain, crossing a beck on a plank, with a short detour to Hull Pot, which Wikipedia gives as 91m long, 18m wide and 18m deep. Walking Britain puts the circuit at 10.6km with 467m of ascent, about four and a half hours. It is also the first leg of the 24-mile Three Peaks round, which the authority says is usually walked in this order and in under 12 hours.

Half a day with a real summit in it suits a walker based in Settle without a car. It is not a walk for anyone who wants a quiet path, since the authority describes this one as among the busiest, and it does not suit anyone uneasy using hands on steep ground. For limestone without a summit, the Malham Cove circuit from Malham village is the better fit; for bigger days, there are Whernside and Ingleborough.