Ingleton Waterfalls Trail

Location: Thornton and Twisleton Glens, Ingleton

Grid Reference: SD69327341

Ingleton Waterfalls Trail passes through a nature reserve managed and owned by the Ingleton Scenery Company and sections owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. The site forms part of the Thornton and Twisleton Glen Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and part of this area is also protected by a Limestone Pavement Order (LPO). The trail is one of the best places to see gorge woodlands in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The deep wooded glens cut through Carboniferous limestone in Thorton Glen and silurian slate in Twisleton Glen. The Rivers Twiss and Doe, which run through the gorges, form a series of waterfalls. The most impressive of these is Thornton Force.

Ancient semi-natural upland ash woodland grows on the limestone with an understory of hazel and wych elm with yew on the cliffs and scars. The ground flora here is dominated by dog’s mercury, wild garlic and tufted hair-grass with the addition of herbs such as sanicle and an enclosure with the reintroduced lady’s-slipper orchid. Ancient semi-natural oak-birch woodland grows on the silurian slate with a ground flora of great wood-rush and bilberry. The site is particularly rich in woodland mosses and liverworts and is the sole site for the Yorkshire feather moss and long-leaved flapwort. Brown trout can commonly be seen leaping up the waterfalls and dippers are often seen at water level, indicating good water quality. The foam that forms on the water’s surface, especially when the river is in full flow, is naturally occurring.

Ingleton Waterfalls Trail is the only site that we have included without an existing public right of way. There is an admission charge to visit this popular trail, which forms a circular route. Visitors should enter the trail via the ticket office at Broadwood by the viaduct in Ingleton.