Stolly's Running Adventures

[FellMonster]

Good reading Stolly....obviously a lot of effort to arrange it and put it online so well done.

Loving the pony pics by the wayat Haworth. Good stuff.

[Manhar]

Stolly

These are fantastic accounts of your runs - really good reading.

[Stolly]

Thanks

[Deejay]

Stolly, they're encouraging me to go out and do more training, so please stop, NOW

[Stick]

I got to agree Stolly - absolutely first class report for last night's beamsley beacon run! Brilliant

[Stolly]

19th January - Malhamdale Circuit - 11 Miles and maybe 1250 ft of Climb

OS Explore Route Map

Parking the car at Malham this morning and it was slightly sunny and a balmy 4.5 degrees - just two top weather then!

In all probability I have run more in and around Malham than anywhere else ever since I've become a token northener and my run today was a slightly extended version of a run I've done a gazillion times. The route also takes in all the tourist attractions - Malham, Janet's Foss, Gordale Scar, Malham Tarn and Malham Cove.

So I started in Malham just over the small bridge opposite the Old Barn cafe. I headed south along a bit of the Pennine Way before branching east along a well used path towards Janet's Foss. The fields were all pretty waterlogged but I wasn't especially worried about getting wet feet, given what was shortly coming up. After I while I entered the wooded valley at the top end of which was Janet's Foss - see here - and given the amount of rain recently it was in full flow.

Beyond that I came out onto the Malham to Gordale road and went north through the campsite (which me and my elder daughter call the 'Dueling Banjos', having met the owners when we camped there years ago ) and into the moonscape that is Gordale Scar:



You run into the bottom of the scar, wade through a stream (well actually fast flowing rapids today) and climb~scramble up the side of the first waterfall and, from there, past another waterfall (that was almost gushing out horizontally) that comes through a gap in a cliff wall to your right and climb a series of steps to get onto the rocky moor above. Here the paths goes north west towards Malham Tarn and is a nice easy run. You stay in this field right to the far boggy corner, climbing the style and then continuing north, keeping the wall on your right and heading more-or-less towards a hill with a cairn on top (kind of looks like a 'pert' breast ). You then cross the cattle grid at the bottom and swerve left around a small wood heading directly for Malham Tarn, with crags immediately to your right.

Then its around through the woods at the top of the tarn, around the back of Malham Tarn House and down the lane. You pass three or four houses and then take the lane on your left for a three hundred yards or so before finally meeting the road up from Arncliffe. You fork left up the hill, past High Trenhouse and descend to a cross roads where you are finally glad to hack off into muddy fields again, following the path west towards Langcliffe. This path was a really welcome return to mud, having run over pretty tame paths and tracks (then a road) for the last 15 minutes or so.

After a while you hit the main track between Malham and Langcliffe and veer left back towards Malham. You cross the road at Malham and descend into the the narrowish gulley that once must have carried water over the (now dried up) waterfall of Malham Cove. At the cove its best not to try and skip and hop over the weird broken rocks above the cliff but instead cut along a path behind. Then it down the steps to the valley below. This is the view of my path from the top of the cove as it then tracks back into Malham for the finish:



I finished outside the Old Barn cafe only to check my watch and find that it had stopped at 1 hour and 25 seconds, presumably because I bent my wrist too much and effectively hit the stop button. Doh! So no idea of the exact time but it was maybe 1 hour 45. A lovely, lovely run though, albeit a bit on the tourist track!

[Saints Lad]

Very good stuff stolly makes good reading

[Ady In Accy]

Keep the super pics coming, one of my fave bits of the UK. Has been a great playground of mine over the years for caving, walking, running and cycling. I feel another trot up Ingleborough coming on..........

[TODDIE]

Great to see you enjoying but if we all put our logs on this site we would be over run (ged it?) I would save the stuff until you are really old for your grandkids or publish a book, sorry but get a blog!!

[Stolly]

Great to see you enjoying but if we all put our logs on this site we would be over run (ged it?) I would save the stuff until you are really old for your grandkids or publish a book, sorry but get a blog!!

Sorry Toddie but the very first thing I did on this thread was to apologise see here. If you're not interested fine, just choose not to read it .

I'm not especially keeping the log for nostalgia purposes - I do things to really enjoy them at the time, not as pre-staged events so that I can record myself pretending to enjoy myself.... if you know what I mean. It will be fun though, if I get that far, to look back in 11 months time and quickly remind myself of my running year. Thats all.