Catrigg Force, Jubilee and Victoria Caves

Catrigg Force and The Caves

This is a superb 6 mile walk ( with an optional and worthy half mile detour) starting and ending in the centre of the village of Langcliffe, through some of the best limestone scenery in the country. The walk starts on the car park at Langcliffe, When coming into the village on the Settle to Horton Rd, turn right at the sign to Malham, and follow the winding road a couple of hundred yards to the public car park on the left.

1. Leave the car park on the track at the back left hand side and almost immediately fork right. You are now on a classic Dales Walled lane. Follow this
until it ends at a gate. Follow the path alongside a wall on your right as it climbs the hillside. The way becomes slightly steeper as it ascends the hill to a gate at the top. Through the gate and slightly right as the path climbs further, past a cairn and into a field with limestone outcrops. At a stile, cross into another field and follow the obvious path across to another stile to emerge on a farm track.

2. Turn right on the track, cross cattle grid and go straight on with the wall on your left, as the track bears right, keep straight ahead on a broad grassy track to a gate/stile visible in a stone wall on your left.

3. From here go through the gate and descend the track to another gate, go through and immediately right at a signpost for Catrigg Force. The best view of the waterfall is to go left at the bottom and descend through the woods to the base of the fall. A spectacular 20 metre drop through the rocky gorge.

Return the way you came back to point 3. Through the gate and follow the broad track as it bends left and comes to a tarmac road after approx half a mile. Turn right and walk down the road through lovely limestone scenery, pass an ancient Lime kiln on your left then just after a lay by / parking area, and immediately after a cattle grid turn left on to an obvious green track towards Jubilee Cave.

6. Follow this track to a wall stile with an old stone trough on the other side. Continue until the path forks and take the left grassy track to to a wall stile, cross this on to a cart track. Jubilee cave is now right in front of you. The cave has 2 obvious entrances, the one on the right a bigger space where you can walk for about 10 metres. There are lots of nooks and crannies and other tight squeezes leading to other entrances on the hill side.

7. Return to the cart track and go left for a few yards and then fork left up a track signposted to Victoria Cave. This is a massive cave with an info board explaining its history just outside, Again its OK to enter the cave but there are barriers not far inside advising you to go no further. From the cave drop back down to the original track and continue with the wall on your right. Continue onwards until the path starts to descend, at the bottom there is a large opening in the wall and this is where you turn right. Alternatively you can turn left and make the steep climb / scramble up a thin path to reach Attamire cave. If you go to this cave, you will need a torch to see, as you can meander along a passage for about 20 metres. If you so wish, you can then squeeze though a gap to emerge into a large 30 foot high chamber with a knee deep pool of water in the open space.

8. Back at the bottom go through the wall gap and follow the path with the wall on your left. Looking to your right you have the glorious view of Warrendale Knotts, like a mini mountain range, outstanding scenery. Continue over a stile before forking right at an obvious fork in the grass path and head towards a cave visible ahead. Bivi Cave when you get there it’s just a small tent sized cave (hence its name) from here follow the path with the wall on your right and the superb Warrendale Knotts scenery also on your right. At this point a small detour is absolutely worth the effort. You will pass a ladder stile in the wall on your right, cross it and bear left heading up to a "mini mountain" it will only take 5 minutes or so to reach the top, There is a small cairn on the summitt. This Mini Mountain has a height of 400 metres but is unnamed. The view from the top in all directions is fabulous. It really does deserve to be named. Having admired the views, retrace your steps back to the ladder stile, climb it and continue to your right.

9. Follow this track until the wall ends and then continue downhill with the town of Settle now spread out in front of you. Drop down steeply to a wall and then turn right along a broad grassy track with the wall now on your left. At a stile, cross the wall and keep ahead towards a small woodland, pass through a gate to the right of the woodland and follow this as it drops back into Langcliffe directly opposite the car park.