Pen-y-ghent
| Pen-y-ghent | |||
| Yorkshire | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Pen-y-ghent | |||
| Range: | Pennines | ||
| Summit: | 2,277 feet SD838733 54°9’19"N, 2°14’58"W | ||
Pen-y-ghent is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales; one of the "Yorkshire Three Peaks" with Ingleborough and Whernside. It rises some two miles east of Horton in Ribblesdale.
The Pennine Way links the summit to the village; the route is around three miles long as the Way curves initially to the north before turning east to reach the summit.
The more direct route that traverses the southern 'nose' of the hill is the route usually taken by the those attempting The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, as the walk is usually (but not exclusively) done in an anti-clockwise direction starting or finishing in Horton in Ribblesdale. The other main fellwalkers' route on the hill heads north from the summit to reach Plover hill before descending to join the bridleway that is Foxup Road.
The name of the fell is apparently from the Old British (or Old Welsh) language: 'Pen' means "head" or "peak", but 'ghent' is more obscure. It could be taken to be edge or border.[1] The name "Pen-y-ghent" could therefore mean Hill on the border.[2] An alternative suggestion, it could be mean 'wind' or 'winds', from the closest Welsh language translation as 'gwynt'. Thus it might mean simply 'Head of the Winds'.
References
Bibliography
- Bibby, Andrew (2008), 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
Outside links
- Computer generated summit panoramas Pen-y-ghent index
- Photos of Pen-y-ghent and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
