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Three middle-aged blokes are looking for a bit of advice about where to go for some top drawer riding, karst and decent village pubs in the Dales. We're in South Wales so will drive up after work and get a long-weekends worth of fun. It's been years since I was last there but remember the Ribblesdale- Malham- Wharfedale area as pretty stunning with seemingly loads of old school MTB potential.
This looks good:
Glorious Peaks Classic Ride
Cheers in advance,
Ambrose
Is there a reason you're going for the Dales instead of just going up the M5/M6 to the Lake District?
Yup, I want to ride karst scenery.
As a base, I probably choose either south Dales, somewhere like Settle for after-ride eats/drinks, or Swaledale. Horton has two pubs, but nothing else. Upper Wharfedale is great as long as you don't mind steep climbing out of the door!
Dales bike centre not the obvious answer?
Settle is a good base for a riding and beers weekend.
You can get it to malhamdale and then over to wharfdale if you want a really big day out.
Driving from S Wales, settle is probably far enough into the dales to go.
Honestly everything but ribblesdale in the area is crap.
Just drive to Kendal.
Reeth is awesome. Dales bike center is awesome.
and some of the routes around Swaledale are amongst the best in the country.
Grassington might be a decent base as you can cover Settle/Malham/Wharfdale easily enough but then head up towards Kettlewell and Yokenthwaite for all your Karst requirements. Malham would be a decent base too but bit less going on compared to Settle or Grassington.
Yeah Grassington too.
Dale's bike centre is a brilliant base. Good riding, decent pubs in walking distance. Brilliant cake and coffee from the bike centre and an honourable mention for the bakery in the mini business park.
Beat me to it - Dales bike centre
Had to look up Karst!
Now I understand the route that passes Hull Pot and the limestone pavements above Crummackdale...I can probably add some more points of interest to that.
I've been riding 33 years & 'Karst' is a new word to me.
Better than Grikes & Clints cos it's shorter.
Malham way then.
Pull off at J36 of the M6, do a sneaky ride around Farleton. Then head to Whitbarrow, down the A590. Do a loop around there. That's your karst sorted. Head in to the Lakes.
Ignore my message. I meant swaledale. But also just go to the lakes.
For the best limestone, south western fringes around Grassington, Malham, Austwick.
It really is spectacular/unique and I love it around there, but not for the riding
The best riding is in reeth, or stick down the southern end around ilkley
Depends what sort of riding you like, really.
obv not going to disagree that the lakes has better riding, but the dales has a different charm plus limestone scenery (though for me a lot of the better riding is higher up above the limestone layers, or in swaledale which is more leadmining dominated). Either way:
For the best limestone, south western fringes around Grassington, Malham, Austwick.
It really is spectacular/unique and I love it around there, but not for the riding
Kind of agree though highlight Littondale too. Lots of rides use Mastiles Lane to link Wharfedale to Malham Tarn which is worth a visits (Malham Cove, Goredale Scar and around are the , the Cote Gill descent to Arnecliffe Cote being a classic blast (spoit a bit by cows last time I did it). There's also a bridleway across the top of Yew Cougar Scar, which turns into a footpath according to the map but rides fine, and is full on limestone scenery.
All the three bridleways which cross from Littondale to Langstrathdale and upper wharfedale are worth riding in both directions, and can be used to extend the round of pen-y-ghent. (Here's a version - https://pedalnorth.com/heart-of-the-dales-mtb/ - easily shortened by taking the road down littondale rather than the long loop via hawes.)
The tour of Ingleborough is worth googling - here's a version: https://pedalnorth.com/ingleborough-round/ - pavements, potholes, sinkholes and a weird tunnel (prob not in the version I posted). There's also a bridleway to the top (turns into a push then brief carry), worth riding once. Plus other stuff.
Likewise the settle loop - attemire is like a mini limestone version of colorado or somewhere wild west. The dales high way descent down to the classic bridleway descent does get ridden. That's probably enough...
(Makes me realise it's a while since I've ridden most of these, as this year I've most riding from the door in my corner of the gristone dales, further afield stuff being ny moore, lakes, highlands and provence.)
Time to break out MemoryMap and start plotting I think.
Lakes can wait, it's the Dales I'm after this time.
Ambrose
OP here in wet and misty Reeth. Had a ride up and over Marrick and Hurst Moor. I love the short turf but isn't wet limestone just a bit slippy!?!?
Edit, just realised the thread is 7 months old! No use recommending Kettlewell.