Great Whernside
Wonderful place in the Yorkshire Dales.
Great Whernside is one of the giants of the Yorkshire Dales. Located near Kettlewell, a small village, wonderful place to visit.
The route started at a car park (£4.8 for up to 6 hours, payment by card only) and there is also a car charger point if needed. We then started to walk along the River Wharfe towards the hill.
We started the hike early in the morning and after few minutes we have enjoyed the sunrise and the views from the beautiful hills.
The top of the hills were covered in snow but the bottom was still green but frosty. While we were ascending we saw a big house. Initially I thought it is a farm but after we got closer we have manage to see it was a chapel and a hostel.
Hag Dyke Hostel was originally a farmhouse and its occupants traced back to 1730, but it is probably older and could have housed miners working in Dowber Ghyll lead mines opened in 1680. A ‘‘Dyke‘‘ in Dales dialect means a mountain diving wall and ‘‘Hag‘‘ means enclosed land or an intake. The Chapel, at 1533 feet it is the highest in England. Information selected from Hag Dyke website.
The Great Whernside is 704m height and the views from up there are very nice, even though it was poor visibility as it was snowing and very windy and we couldn’t see much. Play the attached video with sounds to hear the strong wind blowing our hats off.
The strong wind was blowing the icy snow into our face. The ice was burning our cheeks and made our hike more difficult. I was happy to reach to the trig but the wind didn’t let us have our lunch or cup of tea so we decided to carry on.
The wind and snow was still blowing in our face and the snow and frozen path didn’t make it any easier but it was challenging. Once we started to descend the weather was nicer and the sun was lighting our path.
In just few hours we have managed to walk more than 8 miles and witnessed few weather phenomena.
The 8 mile route was a great hike in the Yorkshire Dale, a little bit difficult due to weather conditions but challenging and a great exercise.
We finished the route in just 4 hours back to the car park where we had our lunch and a well deserved cup of tea.
