A Coroner has decided not to recommend the introduction of safety measures at a Dales beauty spot which claimed the life of sports-mad teenager.

Nineteen-year-old Joel Scott, of Moorland Drive, Guiseley, died after falling from Loop Scar – a 30-foot rock alongside the River Wharfe at Burnsall – in June this year.

He and a friend, Ben Lee, of Appletreewick, had been jumping from the top of the cliff into the river below – known as tombstoning – and had already made a couple of jumps when tragedy struck.

But Mr Scott did not sustain his fatal head injuries while jumping, an inquest in Skipton was told yesterday.

The hearing was told that he had been climbing back up to the top when he apparently fell backwards on to the rocky ground below. There were no witnesses to the fall.

Mr Scott was taken Harrogate District Hospital where he later died.

Summing up, Coroner Geoff Fell said he could write to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the landowner asking for fencing to be put up at the beauty spot, but he wondered whether that was what Mr Scott would have wanted.

He said: “People have jumped off Loop Scar since long before I was born and I have to say Joel did not receive his injuries when he jumped. Life would be very poor if we did not take risks.

“Yorkshire and the National Park have a great deal to offer in outdoor pursuits and I think people should take care and weigh up the risks for themselves.”

He said there was little evidence that people used the route that Joel had taken and fencing would be very intrusive on the landscape.

Mr Fell recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Scott had been staying in Appletreewick at the time of his death. He had hoped to study sports sciences at university and was a talented footballer.