The village of Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales is a delightful place to visit.It contains a handful of pretty stone cottages, a pub, a couple of cafes ,a village shop, an eclectic vintage store and a Mountain Rescue base for nearby Ingleborough, one of the Three Peaks. If you don’t fancy a spot of hill walking or climbing , then I recommend the pretty nature trail through Ingleborough Estate and a tour of Ingleborough Cave instead. 🙂
We parked on the National Park’s Car park in the village, which is quite expensive so bring plenty of change. From there we walked past the church and followed the brook to the beginning of the nature trail, which is well sign posted. There is an honesty box for contributions toward its upkeep.
There is a slight incline before you get to a lake. The lake is man- made and was created by an ancestor of the family who own the Ingleborough estate. Reginald Farrer was a renowned botanist and explorer. He collected many new species of rhododendrons, shrubs and alpines in China, Burma and Tibet in the early 1900’s. Most still survive today. His unusual gardening technique of firing the seeds with a shotgun at a cliff face to distribute the rock plants , seems to have worked. 🙂
We put Hugo on his lead in the woodland and kept to the main path, as he is one for wandering ! I would have loved to have explored a bit more and discovered Reginald’s collection of exotic plants. Instead we made do with our own beautiful native wildflowers, which are abundant on the trail.
The building above is known as ‘The Grotto’ and was built in the 19th Century to shelter those who wanted to sit back and admire the scenery.
After the woodland, the landscape opens out onto limestone pastures ,so we let Hugo have a play in the babbling brook. 🙂 As you can see the path is pretty decent and is so all the way along. I would definitely say that it is suitable for prams, pushchairs, wheelchairs etc.
The Entrance to the Cave soon comes into sight! I go and investigate the little shop and it seems a tour is about to start in 5 minutes. There are only two other couples putting on hard hats , so we decide to go for it. Hugo does not have to wear a hat , though I think it would have suited him. ;).
Our Guide ‘Jude’ was really enthusiastic and regaled us with the history of Ingleborough Show Cave and how it to was first explored in 1837 by members of the Farrer family, after a massive flood revealed it. The intrepid Victorians made their staggering discoveries dressed in tweed and carrying candles! Stalagmites and stalactites galore. Today the cave retains its treasures for everyone to view and the interesting tour is well worth the £9 charge.
We really enjoyed our exploration of Ingleborough Cave. The tour is well lit and there is a concrete path to follow. There is quite a bit of head ducking , so be warned if you are pretty tall! Afterwards we warmed up with hot drinks and made our way back to Clapham, via the trail. It was wonderful to catch the odd glimpse of dippers darting up the stream. 🙂 Of course if you want to carry on over the pack horse bridge and up to Gaping Gill ( a natural pothole cave), there is more to discover…….
Once back at the trail entrance I happened to glance up at the wall and saw a male pheasant perched there. It was so completely still that I actually thought it was a plastic model at first ! What beautiful birds pheasants are. 🙂
And two inquisitive pugs woofed their goodbyes from a Clapham Village Garden.
sunshine and celandines 
A wonderful informative post! The caves look a great place to visit! Hope Hugo is feeling better now? Lovely photos Sharon, thanks for taking us on your adventure. 🙂 x
Thanks Christine. We really enjoyed it. Hugo is much better now. We had just started giving him glucosamine when you told me about yumove and it seems to be working. I ordered the yumove too for the future.x
Thanks good to hear 😀 x
What a lovely walk and not too far away. Kitty would love the adventurous caves. Definitely one for us to try!
Oh yes you should. Its a really nice little adventure. 🙂
We did this a few years ago – for some reason Queen Victoria’s bloomers have stuck in my mind!
Ha yes they have stuck in my mind too. 😉
Lovely photos and post Sharon. Especially the dogs! I visited the caves a few year’s ago but have never been on the trail, which looks so magical. I feel a trip coming on to the Yorkshire Dales. As well as walking, I also love tea shops and a rummage in a Vintage store! 🙂
Sounds like you will love it there. The vintage shop is a real treasure trove and the nature trail is lovely. 🙂
I have not heard of these caves before, thank you for such a lovely tour. I like the two dogs picture at the end!
They were little cuties, though quite yappy !
What a lovely tour.
It was good fun .:)
We walked from Clapham to Ingleborough Hill a few years ago – it was a winch meet weekend so we did it to be winched down into Gaping Gill! A brilliant day that was (except for being cold and wet in the great british summer, haha!), then on the way back we visited Ingleborough Cave. We haven’t walked the nature trail I don’t think though! I enjoyed seeing your photos.
Thanks Louise! You are far more adventurous than me. I will have to walk up to Gaping Gill next time. I bet you were freezing being lowered into that gaping hole. ;( x
I love rhodies! It’s a while since I was over that way and this looks like a lovely walk. I’ll pinch it! I know you won’t mind. 🙂 🙂
Of course! 😉 x
We did the trail and cave last Valentine’s day; it’s such a lovely place to wander up to. Your photos of it are lovely 🙂
Thank you , its a great place to photograph and a lovely walk. 🙂
What an absolutely beautiful picture of your lab! He is gorgeous. What a lovely adventure and the spring flowers are so delightful.
Hugo is very photogenic. 🙂 x
I can’t wait to visit this Ingleborough cave.. I tried to visit in March but there has been some heavy rains the day before we went there and on the morning so the cave was flooded.. I was disappointed.
Oh hopefully you will get to visit again soon. Its very impressive. X
I really want to visit it, I love caves in general and all the pictures I have seen of them are amazing!
It was actually the first ever show cave I’ve been to. 🙂
The ones in the Peak District are quite good as well