GUIDE TO PEN-Y-GHENT GILL
NAME OF RIVER: Pen-y-ghent Gill.
WHERE IS IT?: North Yorkshire, running down from Pen-y-ghent into the River Skirfare near the village of Litton.
PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: We got in at the resurgence as this gem goes underground! The Resurgence is found just after a cattle grid on the road from Stainforth to Halton gill at SD856733 and the take out was just after the confluence with the River Skirfare (SD895746).
APPROX LENGTH: 5 km.
TIME NEEDED: One and a half hours.
ACCESS HASSLES: No problems known as it won't get paddled much.
WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: It needs to have been raining very hard for quite a while as it is fed by underwater caves. I would'nt bother unless it looks high as it would spoil a great trip
GRADING: 3/4 with two 5 falls.
MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: There are 2 main falls at the top and several others the still need to be respected. Also at least 3 fences and towards the bottom it goes through a wood.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This Beck is continuous down to the confluence with many grade 3/4 drops.
The first major fall is in the first 400m and is obvious. Its drops 4m in total with a shut and most of the water goes into a very undercut wall; on the whole, it's ugly.
More falls to follow but none to worry about until you see a fence across the river. This again drops 4m. It is possible to paddle under the fence where the gill drops one metre down a Rocky fall/ slide. Then you have about 3 m to line up over the 3 m drop which is undercut to the left...a boof would be preferable here, but it's got a deep enough pool to melt down as one of our party found out!
After this fall it's continuous for the next 3km with a couple of g4 drops.
OTHER NOTES:
Excellent Go-Pro Video of the whole run by Matt Bibbings
CONTRIBUTED BY: Steve Ed.