Hotpot! no_4 - YHA Ingleton, YHA Mankinholes

What use is a blog with no content to fill it?

As I near the end of my list of visited hostels, I am confronted with just such a question. Although I can cheerfully postpone my reckoning through today’s featurette on YHA Ingleton and Mankinholes, I must also look to the future (now it’s only just begun). What does it hold? With any luck, even more fruitful YHA visits. But since I can’t count on getaways to new hostels to continue apace, content may become in ever-decreasing supply.

So what use, this blog? O, reason not the need!, as capricious crackpot and unlikeliest recipient of a ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug Lear might say. Let’s make hay while the sun shines.

The treachery of memory forces me to brevity when it comes to YHA Ingleton, located in the Yorkshire Dales. In the halcyon days of my youth, my family visited the hostel during an especially rainy week. My principal memories from our walks there were the unusually powerful waterfalls along the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. Visiting again in later life, I found them very tame by comparison.

Thanks to the nature of limestone (and in no small part to the wet weather), there are also some very impressive cave networks in the surrounding area. Two ‘show caves’ are at a very convenient distance to the hostel. The closest, White Scar Cave, is not far from the Waterfalls Trail. The other, Ingleborough Cave, is a 15 minute drive (or a few hours’ walk) away. Ingleborough Cave is also connected to the famous Gaping Gill system.

Although I have never personally visited, the scale of it from the photos and description is awe-inspiring. The main chamber - the eponymous Gaping Gill - is 100m deep, and Fell Beck’s precipitous descent through it earns it the title of the ‘‘longest unbroken waterfall in the UK’. To find out more about the system, including information about biannual ‘winch meets’, whereby members of the public can make the descent, you can visit the Council of Northern Caving Clubs website.

YHA Ingleton verdict: Inspiring! (from what I remember of it)

Owner of an unprepossessing name (and possibly a Lonely Heart), YHA Mankinholes, in the West Yorkshire Pennines, was the destination of a more recent visit. A few years ago, my sister and I took a small hiking trip from recent feature Haworth down to Mankinholes, going via all the hits of the Bronte route and taking the path via Rochdale Canal through Hebden Bridge.

Having recently covered the majesty of the Haworth area, I don’t feel I have much to add to the account here. Suffice to say, there was mandatory singing of Kate Bush* around Top Withins, and tonally-appropriate wailing about Heathcliff.

YHA Mankinholes verdict: Great!

At the time of writing, the hostel is ‘temporarily closed’ and has transferred to independent ownership since my visit. It now exists as a ‘Partner’ hostel in the YHA’s roster, much like YHA Haworth. I remember it being small, functional, and suitably cosy.

*who incidentally tops the leaderboard in my ranking of Bushes. For those interested, Georges Jr and Sr prop up the bottom, while ‘Burning’ looks to maintain form for a respectable mid-table finish.