Sadly, our Ribblehead workshop isn’t going ahead this weekend – but we’re hoping (fingers crossed) that we’ll be able to get our first workshop of 2020 under way at Aysgarth next month! In the meantime, here’s a look back at some of our visits to Ribblehead over the last decade of Natural Light Photography Workshops…
A trip to Ribblehead has been pretty much an annual fixture, in one form or another, on our workshop schedule since 2012. In the first few years we ran it as a two centre workshop with part of the day on Twisleton Scar but the area around the famous Ribblehead Viaduct has always featured significantly on the workshop. In fact, on our current workshop walk you can see the viaduct from just about anywhere on the circuit!
As well as the viaduct, the workshop features views of the Yorkshire Three Peaks from a variety of angles during the day with the view from Ribblehead towards Ingleborough providing a great opportunity for sunset photography at the end of the day, if the weather is favourable – as it was on the visit in 2016 above.
In the other direction, Whernside looms above us and we always stop to admire the view with a field barn and dry stone walls across the meadows below it. Last year we had a pleasant day with wispy white clouds whereas the previous year we could barely see Whenside in the bank of low cloud! The barn and lush fields looked great though…
After the walk from the Whernside barn and a lunch stop by a lone tree we spend the afternoon exploring the huge area of limestone pavement, with another lone tree and various balanced boulders with views across the valley to Whernside and down the valley to Ingleborough. This is a great area to explore and get lost in the limestone and there’s always something new to discover and photograph in any light – from grand sweeping landscapes to detail images of ferns lurking in the grykes.
Back in 2012 when we started the Ribblehead workshop we had a slightly different view towards Whernside in the afternoon from the standing stone up on Twisleton Scar!
That looming cloud over Whernside hung around for most of the day on the workshop in 2018, but we were rewarded with some great light later in the afternoon at the field barn with views across towards Pen-y-Ghent in the distance – completing the set of the Yorkshire Three Peaks!
I fact, you can see all three of the Yorkshire Three Peaks from the limestone pavement at Ribblehead at the end of the day – though the spectacular view towards Ingleborough is always the focus of attention!
It’s a real shame not to be standing at this viewpoint this weekend, so let’s hope for a great sunset on the Ribblehead workshop in September 2021!
