Simon Fell

I did this walk three weeks ago, but I had a bit of a backlog of posts – hence why I did two last week. I like having a little bit of backlog, because it’s nice to know for definite what the next two or three posts are going to be. But it was getting to be a bit much.

Anyway. Simon Fell is classed as a subsidiary summit of Ingleborough; there’s a ridge with three summits – the other one being Park Fell. I think most people who do the non-Ingleborough ones do all three in one go, but I’m not the type to go for more than summit at a time (although if I had to do three, it would probably be these ones, since it’s not down and up again).

Ingleborough

Ingleborough is the second tallest mountain in Yorkshire, and along with Whernside – the tallest – and Pen-y-ghent, is one of the Three Peaks of Yorkshire. A famous challenge is to climb all three in one go, which I have never attempted, and probably never will.

But I have climbed them all individually many times. Not for quite some years, apparently, but when I was a child I lived in this general area, and we went walking basically every weekend, and these were regulars. I liked Ingleborough the best of the three; I always remember feeling like it was the easiest. Though I can’t confirm that because, while I did climb Ingleborough last weekend – hence this post – it’s still been a long time since I climbed the other two.

There are a few ideas on where the first part of Ingleborough’s name comes from; it could be from the Old English for ‘peak’, an old Scots term for ‘fire’ or ‘beacon’, or a Danish prefix meaning ‘English’. And ‘borough’ is from the Old English for a ‘fortified place’, because there was once a fort up there.

Ingleborough Cave

I went for a walk along the Clapham Nature Trail, which I’ve written about before and so won’t go over again. But the trail leads to Ingleborough Cave, which I have either never been in at all, or not been in since I was little. I thought it was the latter, but my father doesn’t seem to agree with me.

But I have definitely been in it now. The full album – containing photos from both trail and cave – is here.