A Visit to Malham.

Apart from our short trip to Wensleydale, we had never been to the Yorkshire Dales. So, at the end of May, we visited Malham. The impressive Malham Cove was formed by one of the last Ice-Age glaciers in Britain. For a long time, it was the site of a waterfall, until the river seeped into the limestone rock, and now emerges from the bottom of the cove instead. On top of the cove we saw these fantastic limestone formations (photos above). We hiked up glacial valleys to Water Sinks, where the river that comes out of Malham Tarn (Yorkshire’s biggest natural lake) disappears. (I guess that is the same river that reappears under Malham Cove, Malham Beck; it eventually flows together with the Gordale Beck, to form the River Ayre, just south of Malham, in a place appropriately called "Ayre Head".)

After returning to Malham, we had some tea, and visited Gordale Scar, an impressive canyon with a waterfall. I had originally planned to come back this way from our walk, but the official footpath led right down the waterfall, so perhaps it was a good thing we changed our original plan. Thomas and Kees had some fun climbing the waterfall nonetheless.