Bullpot, Yorkshire Dales, Summer
The heatwave has finally ended.
After a week of temperatures pushing 30°C consistently with barely any air movement, today was looking a more comfortable 23°C with some wind.
About a month ago we embarked on one of our favourite local-ish walks, Barbondale in the Yorkshire Dales. On that occasion I was somewhat distracted by the sheer number of deer flies biting chunks out of me. Part of the Barbondale hike we did involved clambering over into Bullpot. We resolved to return to Bullpot for a deeper exploration of the area’s famous pot holes, gills, and caves, particularly Ease Gill Kirk.
After a lazy start, today was that day.
The dry ravines around the junction between Ease Gill and Leck Beck display some wonderful geology. Like a lot of the Yorkshire Dales, the gills here are largely made of limestone, which is porous and soluble in water. Limestone landscapes lend themselves to lots of waterfalls and cave systems, and the Ease Gill Cavern System is the longest and most complex cave system in Britain. As a result of the areas various potholes and caves, the area around Ease Gill Kirk is largely dry and full of “extinct” waterfalls, ready for exploration.
Which we duly did as best we could.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Samyang 35mm f/1.2, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax 55mm f/2.0 lens. Images made 80% in-camera using a customised Velvia film simulation, with minor edits afterwards in Lightroom and Affinity Photo.
The way to Ease Gill Kirk, after passing Bullpot Farm. The old farmhouse now serves as the base for the Red Rose Cave & Pothole Club.
The ruins of two lime kilns provide a hint as to the industrial heritage of this area.
The Bullpot valley features lots of dry stone walls that expertly trace the steep curves of the dale.
Layers and layers.
Our first sighting of the dry Ease Gill Kirk. Now to clamber down and explore…
We followed the dry river bed east up Ease Gill to find our first “waterfall”. The gill is largely dry now—save for periods of heavy rain—as the limestone geology of the area is water soluble. This means that the water that once carved out this river and waterfall now disappears further up the gill into a deep cave system, many miles below.
Nature is a fantastic sculptor. It was amazing to see the curves and forms created in the rock face by the waterfall that used to flow over here.
A stagnant pool is all that remains of this extinct waterfall.
We exited back out of Ease Gill and made our way south to Ease Gill Kirk, following the dry river.
Lisabet and I scrambled down the gorge created by Ease Gill to capture this world of twists and turns. I’ve no doubt that with a good pair of wellies on, and a more adventurous spirit, you could follow this largely dry gorge a good distance. For now, this will do.
The ruins of Hellot Scales Barn, which serves now as a signpost of sorts for locating Ease Gill Kirk.
On the way back to Bullpot Farm I, of course, had to snap some compositions of the brilliant dry stone walls here.
Just follow the wall all the way back to Bullpot Farm. I suspect in wetter months the path between Bullpot Farm and Ease Gill Kirk would be consistently boggy.
The area near Bullpot Farm is home to lots of shake holes, not to mention one of the main entrances into the Ease Gill Cave System, ominously called “Bull Pot of the Witches”.
I saw it, lined it up, and took a photo of it.
One final shot of the wall of fells above Barbondale known as Calf Top.