Pen-y-ghent#References

In the Cumbric language, exactly as in today's Welsh, pen meant 'top' or 'head', and y is most likely the definite article (the), exactly as in Modern Welsh y (compare Pen-y-berth 'end of the hedge/copse', or Pen-y-ffordd 'head of the road/way', etc.). The element ghent is more obscure, it could be taken to be 'edge' or 'border'.{{cite book|last1=Bibby|first1=Andrew|title=The backbone of England : landscape and life on the Pennine watershed|date=2008|publisher=Frances Lincoln|location=London|isbn=9780711228252|page=120|edition=1}} The name Pen-y-ghent could therefore mean 'Hill on the border' (compare Kent).{{cite book |last1=Ekwall |first1=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |title=The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names |date=1960 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |oclc=1228215388 |page=363 |edition=4}}> Or else, the final element may be gïnt, meaning "a heathen, a gentile" (< Latin gentis; cf. Welsh gynt), presumably in reference to Scandinavian pagans.{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Alan G. |title=A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence – Guide to the Elements |url=https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf |website=Scottish Place Name Society – The common Brittonic Language in the Old North |access-date=25 October 2018}}

It is also acceptable to write the name as Pen y Ghent rather than Pen-y-ghent.

File:Hull Pot - geograph.org.uk - 1250519.jpg

Pen-y-Ghent is made up of a millstone grit top upon a bed of carboniferous limestone.{{cite web|title=BBC – Seven Wonders – Three Peaks|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/yorkshire/three_peaks/03.shtml|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=29 May 2017}} The summit acts as a watershed with water flowing east into the River Skirfare and on through to the Humber Estuary, and water flowing west dropping into the River Ribble, to ultimately flow into the Irish Sea. The distinctive rakes that adorn the hillside (particularly on the western edge of Pen-y-Ghent) were revealed during a great storm in July 1881. The ferocity of the water cascading down the hillside removed the topsoil and revealed the rakes beneath.{{cite web|title=Pen-y-ghent|url=http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/visit-the-dales/get-outdoors-dales/walking/peak-experiences/pen-y-ghent|website=yorkshiredales.org.uk|access-date=29 May 2017}}

Hull Pot Beck rises on the western side of Plover Hill and flows into Hull Pot, which is the largest natural hole in England.{{cite news|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/walks-and-cycling/weekend-walk-hull-pot-1-8330888|title=Weekend Walk: Hull Pot|date=14 January 2017|work=The Yorkshire Post|access-date=29 May 2017}} Hull Pot measures {{convert|300|ft}} long by {{convert|60|ft}} wide and {{convert|60|ft}} deep. The water then flows under Horton Moor before re-appearing just east of Horton in Ribblesdale as Brants Ghyll Beck, where it flows into the River Ribble.{{cite web|url=http://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/WaterBody/GB112071071600|title=Brantsghyll Beck|publisher=Environment Agency|access-date=29 May 2017}} The pot is a collapsed cavern and there is little to explore underground. In dry weather the beck takes an underground route before it gets to the rim. It resurfaces as a waterfall below in the pot itself. In very wet weather the stream runs over the edge into the pot, creating a spectacular waterfall. In extreme flood conditions the entire chasm can fill it to the brim, and overflow onto the hillside. The lower pitches of the cave are described as "some of the most flood prone in the Dales and can only be descended in very low water levels.{{cite web|url=https://cncc.org.uk/cave/hull-pot|title=Hull Pot|website=Council for the Northern Caving Community|accessdate=14 September 2024}}

An 18th century a guide-book named it "Hulpit", 'and was described as "like the inside of an enormous old Gothic castle, the high ruinous walls of which were left standing after the roof was fallen in".{{cite web|url=https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/places/hull_pot/|title=Hull Pot|website=Yorkshire Dales National Park|accessdate=14 September 2024}} Local legend has it that the waters from Hull Pot and Hunt Pot cross each other underground without mixing. This is said to have first been noted when a sheep wash was undertaken in one stream thereby making it muddy, and the husks of oats being dropped into the other stream and both having exited into the Ribble without mixing together.{{cite book|title=The Craven and North-West Yorkshire Highlands|url=https://archive.org/details/cravenandnorthw00speigoog|last1=Speight|first1=Harry|date=1892|publisher=Elliot Stock|edition=1|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/cravenandnorthw00speigoog/page/n353 391]|chapter=XL; All about Pen-y-Ghent|oclc=650329471}}

The Pennine Way links the summit to the village; the route is around {{convert|5|km|order=flip}} in length as the Way curves initially to the north before turning east to reach the summit.{{cite web|title=Walk 33; Pen-y-ghent from Horton|url=http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/walk_33.pdf|website=nationaltrail.co.uk|access-date=29 May 2017}} The more direct route that traverses the southern 'nose' of the hill is the route usually taken by those attempting the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, as the walk is usually (but not exclusively) done in an anti-clockwise direction starting and finishing in Horton in Ribblesdale. The other main hillwalking route on the hill heads north from the summit to reach Plover Hill before descending to join Foxup Road, a bridleway at the head of Littondale.

Pen-y-ghent is one of the mountains on the Yorkshire Three Peaks route.{{cite web |title=Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge |url=https://www.threepeakschallenge.uk/yorkshire-three-peaks-challenge/ |website=National Three Peaks Challenge |access-date=17 October 2018}}

{{wide image|Pen-y-ghent Panorama (by nagualdesign).jpg|1000px|{{center|A panoramic image of Pen-y-ghent viewed from the west, on the footpath from Horton in Ribblesdale, January 2012. Plover Hill is the lower, more distant hill to the left.}}|center|dir=rtl}}

{{Reflist}}

• Bibby, Andrew (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=leHZL46_NgEC The Backbone of England], London: Francis Lincoln Limited
• Ekwall, Eilert (1960), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

{{Commons category|Pen-y-ghent}}

• Computer generated summit panoramas [http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas/ENG/penyghent.gif Pen-y-ghent] [http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas.html index]
• [https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=7713887 Photos of Pen-y-ghent and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk]
• [http://happyhiker.co.uk/MyWalks/YorkshireDales/Pen-y-GhentandPloverHill/Hiking%20Pages%20-%20Pen-Y-Ghent%20and%20Plover%20Hill.htm Climb Pen-y-ghent from Horton-in-Ribblesdale]

{{Marilyns N Eng|state=collapsed}}

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Category:Marilyns of England

Category:Hewitts of England

Category:Peaks of the Yorkshire Dales

Category:Nuttalls

Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in North Yorkshire

Category:Yorkshire Three Peaks

Category:Horton in Ribblesdale