Goredale Scar from Malham

On Location 25th October 2020

Parking: Good parking in Malham village at a large National Park Car Park (Pay and display with toilets)

Route map: click on the arrow to play the route. GPX route available by clicking in the Plotaroute.com link at the bottom right.

This short walk is a popular route on mostly good footpaths. Unfortunately for us we picked a day when the rain hardly relented. The bonus to that is that the waterfalls are more impressive in those weather conditions. We parked in the large car park provided by the National Park.

On leaving the car park we headed left towards the village centre where we then crossed the beck on the right and turned right on the good path through the fields.

The rain was so hard that I took few photographs. However, I am drawn to good subjects such as these field barns, know as laithes locally.

This barn known as Mantley Field laithe even has and old bit of farm machinery outside, and ideal subject for a sketch or painting. The path continues into a wood alongside Goredale Beck.

The waterfall of Janet’s Foss was flowing well. A fine place to sit and sketch on a day of better weather. We followed the path which soon reached the lane which we crossed over to take the obvious path up to Goredale Scar.

The impressive gorge of Goredale Scar, a popular tourist attraction in the dales. Previously when we have walked here we have carried on up through the scar over the waterfall. Today we decided to turn round at this point bt only after I had competed a quick watercolour sketch. This was done whilst sheltering under a large umberella. Not ideal conditions for watercolour work.

UPDATE: 15th April 2023. I have now completed a watercolour painting of this scene.

Sketch completed we re-traced our steps back to the road, Goredale Lane where we turned right.

It’s a fairly quiet country lane, especially at this time of year. In peak season it may not be the case. Here we passed another barn of character, Farleyates Laithe.

Another barn I’m afraid, this one with a finely constructed arch over the big door.

In a short time we were approaching the edge of the village. The rain water was running down the road ahead of us.

We hadn’t picked the right day but in better weather this will be a great little walk. Plenty of interest along the way. Obviously places like Malham Cove and tarn are also close by and can easily visited on longer walks. Malham also has pubs and tearooms to cater for visitors. And area well worth visiting.

Thanks for looking.