The small village of Horton in Ribblesdale is the traditional beginning and end of Yorkshire’s ‘Three Peaks’ walk: a circuit of approximately 40 kilometres, with almost 1,600 metres of ascent and descent, covering the peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside, and Ingleborough. This Yorkshire iteration is considered to be the first of the United Kingdom’s now various ‘Three Peaks’ walks, and wayfarers with a competitive mindset typically attempt to complete the circuit within 12 hours. A fell race is held between the peaks each April, and a cyclo-cross race – which has been described by race organisers as the ‘hardest cyclo-cross race in the world’, as competitors dismount to navigate particularly tricky sections of peat and limestone – takes place on the last Sunday of every September.
Horton in Ribblesdale and Pen-y-ghent provide the beginnings of this post, a series of twenty photographs which extend across the Yorkshire Dales to Walmgate Stray, the River Ouse, and York on Bonfire Night, before heading to Lincoln with its cathedral, Wordsworth Street, and almost indecent Cornhill Quarter. Look at the shrouded hills and burning embers!