It is a good many years since I last climbed Ingleborough and that was in springtime, not in snow. The last time I walked its slopes was in winter, a few years ago, the first time I had been out to play, alone in the north, for many years. It was good to see the familiar shape on out recent trip to Castlerigg.
With Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent, the hill of winds, it is one of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. beneath it are caves and pot holes…it is limestone country. On the ascent are the enigmatic Celtic Walls about which little is known, and the summit is ringed by an Iron Age hillfort… or what is left of it. Many of the stones are thoughtlessly moved by those who do not realise their significance and added to modern cairns.
Gaping Gill, public domain image
The hillfort covers some fifteen acres and may have been built by the Celtic tribes, later known as the Brigantes, to defend their land against the Romans in Queen Cartimandua’s time. It is unusual in that it is not a purely defensive structure, but contains a number of hut circles that suggest a village.
For me, though, it remains a place of mystery, of legends and stories, deep caverns and mysterious, underground waterfalls almost twice the height of Niagara Falls… and most of all, a place of memory and a long-ago childhood.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Those kind of memories, the ones you can see, touch, and smell again, are the best.
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They are. You don’t need the physical reminders…but they are lovely to have aren’t they?
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Wow, would love to see those waterfalls someday.
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There’s just the odd day every year where non-experienced cavers get to be winched down.
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A lovely memory and poem, Sue. We have some amazing caves in South Africa, the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn and the Cradle of Mankind.
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I’ve seen them online, Robbie, and would love to see them in person. Ours are not so spectacular, on the whole… but they are sort of ‘human sized’ as a friend put it.
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Twice the height of Niagara Falls? Wow.
What a wonderful place.
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There are so many hidden treasures we never really get to see. This is one of them 🙂
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