Clapham and Austwick
Distance: 9 miles. Duration: 3.5 hours
From the main car park at Clapham turn right heading alongside Clapham Beck through the village and cross the stone packhorse bridge to the left, then turn right and follow the road up through the village with the stream on your right. Follow the road round to the left at the top of the village and take the track to the right, this is signposted Ingleborough, Gaping Gill. Ignore the first sign for Ingleborough Cave through the house. Follow the walled track uphill, passing a wood on your right to reach a stile (which is made from railway sleepers) at a gate. Cross the style, carrying straight on along the track to reach Clapdale Farm.
Follow the footpath straight on through the farmyard to reach a stile by a gate, after which head steeply down to the right, this is signposted to Ingleborough Cave, to join a clear track that runs alongside Clapham Beck. Ingleborough Cave is a five minute detour to the left. Our route heads straight across the footbridge over the beck, then follows the way uphill and over a wall stile that leads onto a walled track called Long Lane. Turn left along the walled track for three quarters of a mile until you reach a gate at the end of the lane. After the gate follow the green lane up to the right across the grassy moor, up to another gate/stile in the wall. Follow the clear track straight on passing a right angle in the stone wall, then, as the track bends ways to the left, follow the less clear track that branches off up to the right over limestone terrain, passing to the right of a cairn.
Continue along the right of a track as it drops down slightly to reach a crossroads of tracks - ignore the track down to the right - and carry straight on along the grassy track for a further half mile, then take the clear path that turns sharply to the right and follow this downhill to reach Crummock Farm. At the farm turn right along the wall - please do not enter the farm - and head through the marked gates ahead which lead on to a clear farm track. Follow this track for half a mile and then take the walled lane to the left and the track bends to the right, this is signposted Wharfe 1 1/4. Take this lane down over the footbridge/ford, after which a track joins our lane from the left. Follow this narrow walled path to the right for three quarters of a mile into Wharfe.
Turn left though the village, then almost immediately follow the lane down to the right (do not take the lane to the left) and follow this down to reach the road. Turn right along the road and take the lane on the left which is signposted Wood Lane 1 1/4. Follow the lane up passing the farm on your left, after which it becomes a stony/muddy walled track, then a narrower walled path, to reach crossroads of walled tracks after approximately half a mile. At the crossroads take the second walled lane on your left - ignore the track left back on yourself and track directly ahead. Follow this wide clear lane down to each the road at Austwick.
Turn right along the road Austwick Village, bearing right at the road junction, signposted Horton 5, by the small green and follow the road through the village passing the pub and school. Just before you leave the village, take the metalled road on the left, Town Head Lane, and follow this up out of the village. After you have left the houses behind, take the footpath on the left, half way up the hill, over ladder/stile gate - signposted Clapham 1.5. Head straight on alongside the wall heading uphill over another ladder/stile, then continue straight on as the wall bends away to the left to reach a ladder/stile that leads on to a walled track, Thwaite Lane. Turn left and follow the track 1.5 miles as it eventually drops down passing through woods and two tunnels back into Clapham.
