We visited Malham Cove when our oldest children were very small. I remember the Cove quite clearly with a path either side of its enormous rock face and its expansive, flat top. Prior to the Ice Age it was one of Europe’s widest waterfalls. The outstanding memory I have is of our four year-old daughter’s determination to manage the walk up the cove by herself. I think she must have had help with a ride on her daddy’s shoulders. The village was tiny with a green, and a stream running over a rocky bed, and stepping stones to cross it. My husband made a return visit with her when she was 10 years old and we have a photograph of her standing astride the stepping stones.

A trip down memory lane sounded a good idea. As Malham is one of the strategic centres of the Dales with a choice of route to it we chose one that we knew would have a good view of the rock face as the road dropped from the top of the Cove to the village in the valley.

The views through Malham Dale were wonderful but as the road dropped from its dizzy heights to the village we were so disappointed. A new, high stone wall only allowed us a glimpse of the flat top of the rock face as the road twisted so steeply to the village. I do believe that the building of the wall was a necessary and wise precaution – but disappointing for sight seers. The closer we got to the valley floor the higher the vegetation got too. The vegetation had changed the appearance of the green. Trees overhung the stream and shrubs had grown up in clumps in places. The stepping stones were still visible.

We decided that a walk to the cove was too far and sat on a bench instead with a pot of tea and reminisced of past times instead. A walk around the village showed us how it was coping with an influx of walkers and tourists. An ample coach and car park with toilet and eating facilities, a Dales country museum to help tourists understand the fascinating geology of the area and touristy shops providing for walkers and sight seers.

This was obviously one of those times when revisiting the past was not a good idea, although we enjoyed the visit, for the past as we remembered it was not there. The passing of time had necessitated changes for this little village and so it does for us too. To stay in the limitations of the past removes the need for growth and change. Many, many more people enjoy the magnificence of Malham Cove and its Dale today and I am sure will for many years to come just as we did when we first visited 30 years ago. Yes, there was a shuttered building where a recent enterprise had failed but that is how we grow too – seeing what works and what does not – and then moving on.

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