All the cycling data and info you'll need to climb Oxnop Scar (SW #46)

Now THAT’S a fun descent!

Oxnop Scar is #46 on Simon Warren’s Top 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs in Britain.  This climb starts out with its steepest half kilometer right away, before tapering down and ultimately averaging a modest 5.7% for its full four kilometers.

Photo top left: Greetings at the beginning of Oxnop’s Scar!

Grazing livestock for the first few hundred meters. 

At kilometer three for several hundred meters on our right is an interesting wall of rock rising above the roadway; this is the Oxnop Scar.

Steepest ½ kilometer begins at the very beginning of the climb (13.3%).

This climb is in the northern section of Yorkshire Dales National Park (217,800 hectares / 538,195 acres), established in 1954:

“The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a 2,178 km2 (841 sq mi) national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales. The majority of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Cumbria and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designated in 1954, and was extended in 2016. Over 20,000 residents live and work in the park, which attracts over eight million visitors every year.  The park is 50 miles (80 km) north-east of Manchester; Leeds and Bradford lie to the south, while Kendal is to the west, Darlington to the north-east and Harrogate to the south-east. The national park does not include all of the Yorkshire Dales. Parts of the dales to the south and east of the national park are located in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” (Yorkshire Dales National Park). 

Cycling Uphill:

“Oxnop Scar is a climb from Swaledale south towards Wensleydale. Typical of Yorkshire Dales climbs in this part of the world, there is a really steep section of 25%. The steep section is at the bottom, so you will be tired after that for the long remorseless climb towards the top.

The only thing that can be said about the first section is that , traffic permitting, you can take the hairpins wide to reduce the gradient a little. But, it is still quite brutal.

Looking back through some old photos, I found I did this climb a few years ago. In those days, I called it ‘a steep climb in Swaledale’. It was probably done after cycling up Fleet Moss and Buttertubs. The metres ascent can really add up in that part of the world.”