Wed 17 Aug 2016
You can find an index to my other walks here
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Giggleswick Scar top from near Schoolboys Tower |
After breakfast at the café I drove to Buck Haw Brow near Giggleswick and started on AW's walk over Giggleswick Scar. There are several caves in the area, and AW mentions some of them. But the one immediately above the road is the most interesting of the ones I visited - and he doesn't record it. Appropriately named Buck Haw Cave, it has two entrances, one above the other, and is large enough to walk into.
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Buck Haw Brow Cave |
After viewing the cave I ascended to the terrace above, which didn't resemble very closely Wainwright's sketch map, the number of walls that I could identify not agreeing with it. I walked left up to the path that leads over to Feizor to get a view from a higher position. On the way I met a 'know-all' who, like the one Andrew and I spoke to at the Celtic Wall on 6 December last year, rubbished AW's mapping and directions. He asserted the only correct plans & maps were those by the OS, as though they didn't make any mistakes at all.
I dropped back down to the path below the scar. Then, after crossing the first wall, I realised that the squiggles on AW's sketch map I had taken for a broken wall were meant to indicate trees!
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Dense bracken covers the path to Kinsey Cave |
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Kinsey cave behind an Elder bush |
Kinsey Cave had to be accessed by a precarious path above a side valley covered by high bracken which proved too thick to navigate.
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Kinsey Cave |
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Inside Kinsey Cave |
The next three, Spider Cave, Moth Cave, and Wall Cave were easily attained but all of them were hardly worth the effort, although Wall Cave, now without the wall which AW found covering the entrance, looked impressive from outside.
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Wall Cave |
I stopped for a welcome lunch in the warm sunshine, when I was asked by a wandering couple with no map where the caves were; and then I set off to find my way to the summit of the fell. This wasn't easy, the path being obscured by more high bracken, but eventually I reached the cairn.
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Summit cairn |
After a few minutes I made my way down towards the huge pile of stones which was all that remains of Schoolboys Tower. I was unable to locate Schoolboys Cave even after twice searching the ground below the tower - I could see absolutely no sign of it!
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Remains of Schoolboys Tower |
It was getting late so I had a short snack and decided to call it a day. I was loath to retrace my steps back along the way I had come so I decided to take the long way back via Feizor. Using a track that took me down below a fenced quarry, I then turned north along a pleasant path above Stackhouse. Thence I joined a path that I had first used in March 2002 on my first visit to Feizor.
The route, which was
part of Wainwright's Pennine Journey, provided little of scenic interest, and I
was becoming tired. I was glad to reach the junction just short of Feizor and
took the path over to the road on Buck Haw Brow.
Index
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