Smearsett & Attermire Scars

This time I had a weekend away with my neighbour and occasional walking companion Mike. We planned to spend two days walking in Yorkshire, including doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks on the Sunday. After completing the Coast to Coast earlier in the year I was quite confident I would manage the 3 Peaks Challenge, after all it's only 25 miles and about 5500 feet of ascent.

We stayed in Horton and planned a pre-challenge warm up for the Saturday, taking in the limestone scars of Smearsett and Attermire with a lazy evening in the pub drinking Theakston's Old Peculier - my all-time favourite beer.

For our warm up walk, we parked in Stainforth and headed east, across the road and the fabulous old bridge to Stainforth Force. Families were out in force at the force and we saw a couple of brave (or foolish) chaps jumping from the top of the large drop into the peat coloured water below. Presumably one of them had tested the depth before jumping - but I wouldn't bank on it.

This really is limestone country. Approaching Smearsett Scar trig point, Mike dashed ahead to get to the summit first. We had to make a diversion from the usual right of way to reach this spot and then we risked the ridge walk eastwards towards Pot Scar. I say risked, in as much as we had no idea if we would be able to find a usable path back to the valley floor. However, with a little scramble we managed just fine.

We returned to Stainforth and had a relaxing pint in the Craven Heifer. As we walked in the barman said "Oh, it's started to rain then?". It was an easy mistake to make based on our sweating faces and sweat soaked hair. We had an awkward pint and then left for Horton.