The last of this year’s autumn in the Dales.
Time for a little break from my recent Scottish photography escapades.
Although the Met Office were reporting a high pressure system moving over the British Isles, what that resulted in was windless, murky, and overcast conditions. As a result, I knew the light would be super soft, and there wouldn’t be any views from fell tops.
So we head instead to Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. Here we would take the Ingleborough Estate Nature Trail, enjoying all the autumn foliage, the small waterfall and lake, and maybe even check out a little bit of Trow Gill.
No epic light, but gorgeous scenes nevertheless.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom lens. RAWs converted in Lightroom, merged in Photomatix, edited and finalised in Photoshop.
The 18th century bridge that crosses Clapham Beck. This bridge once carried the old Main Road; nowadays it serves pedestrians.
This beautiful waterfall, like a lot of features in Clapham, is man-made. The Farrer family, especially Reginald Farrer, have from their home in Ingleborough Hall developed Clapham village for over a century.
The waterfall serves as an outflow from Clapham Lake. I zoomed in super tight to focus largely on the upper waterfall and the beautiful stone bridge that frames it.
Clapham Lake, surrounded by the last of this year’s autumn colours on a lifeless day. Like the waterfall, the lake was constructed by the Farrer family as a dam to hold back the waters of Clapham Beck.
A beautiful old tree with soft light gently tracing out its arching and spiralling branches. I just had to capture it.
The main trail through Ingleborough Estate, framed with beautiful autumn colours.
I spotted an interesting group of trees further along the lake shore, together forming a capital ‘H’, with vibrant autumn foliage punctuating their composition.
A small beck off the trail highlights the variety of geology present in and around Clapham. The valley of Clapham Beck has cut through the limestone, present in much of the Yorkshire Dales, and into the underlying Ordovician basement rocks. These enable soils that are acidic, not alkaline like those on the limestone.
A dark little scene in Clapham Woods, where little pops of autumn colour punctuate the dense woodland.
The gorge of Trow Gill. The waters from the slopes of Ingleborough, what we call Fell Beck, once carved out this deep gorge with its sheer walls. Eventually, the water stopped flowing through here as Fell Beck instead broke through Gaping Gill nearer Ingleborough, dropping down as England’s longest unbroken waterfall (that is underground).