Video: Daredevil crosses Malham Cove on high wire - while playing trumpet

And visitors have long flocked to view its stunning limestone formation of Malham Cove, deemed one of the wonders of Yorkshire, if not the world.

But few have managed to match the vantage point that Daniel Laruelle, from Bristol, managed to obtain at the weekend.

Despite wintry winds and blinding sun, student Mr Maruelle crossed the cove walking on a rope across the 400ft high curved shape created by the rocks.

To the uninitiated, it might appear to be a tightrope but this is actually slacklining or highlining. Instead of a tightly taut rope, he was walking on a slack line some 410ft (125 metres) long, safely tethered at both sides.

Mr Laruelle took a group of daredevils to the North Yorkshire beauty spot with just a harness to help if he missed a step.

Not content with tackling such a height in the beginning of winter, he had some stunts too.

Armed with a trumpet and other trickery, he braved the height to experience the feeling of “floating in the air” among the limestone valley beauty of the cove.

Mr Laruelle, who has been slacklining for seven years, said: “When you are in the middle of the rope, that far above the ground you feel like you are flying.

“When you get to experience that you don’t feel fear.”

Mr Laruelle, 21, started slacklining after his father bought him a rope as a youngster and he began waterlining – slacklining over water – and tricklining – slacklining on a rope close to the ground that enables the walker to do tricks.

He began highlining three years ago and has been hooked on the hobby ever since.

He said: “There are not many people in England who slackline.

“I have created a slackline club at Northumbria University to try to encourage people into the activity.”

The group had two rope lengths to choose from – 65 metres (200ft) and 125 metres (400ft) – and Mr Laruelle admitted that no one had made it across the longer length so far.

The third-year architect student added extra complications to his own walk by taking a trumpet to play as he stepped out into the air.

Mr Laruelle said: “I can only play a few notes on the trumpet but my aim was to get a short tune out while in the middle of the rope.

“It was so surreal – standing on a highline in these beautiful surroundings playing a trumpet.

“It was quite difficult to play the trumpet and walk the highline which I didn’t expect. When I walk the highline, I always to concentrate on my breathing but when you have to blow into the trumpet, you mind is taken away from focusing on the walk. But it was an amazing feeling.”

Malham Cove is a natural limestone formation near the village of Malham. A well-known beauty spot, it is a large, curved limestone cliff at the head of a valley, with a fine area of limestone pavement at the top.

The valley was formed at the end of the last ice age when the ground was frozen.

The frozen ground meant that meltwater from the melting ice sheet formed a large river flowing over the surface, eroding the valley that we see today.

The water from this river flowed over Malham Cove to form a waterfall.

Then when the climate warmed 12,000 years ago the river in the valley disappeared underground.