Map reproduced from OpenStreetMap.org

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Distance: 11.7km Ascent: 355m

Time: 3-4 hours

Moderate walking. Not suitable for prams, buggies or wheelchairs. Boots or trail shoes needed. Can be muddy after rainfall.

Start at Sedbergh Information Centre at 72 Main Street (1), turn right along Main Street and at the end turn left down Finkle Street past the church. Turn right just past the churchyard (2) and follow the narrow lane along the side of the cricket pitch. You are now in the grounds of Sedbergh School. Turn left beside the sports pavilion, signposted to Birks. Follow this path straight on, across another path, through a gate and down the grassy hill to Busk Lane. Cross the road to the wide track opposite (3).

Walk past the Hirst Centre sports hall, turn right at the large barn then across a field. Go through a gate, up the slope to pass left of Birks House and out to Birks Lane. Turn left, careful of traffic, down to the mill (4). Don’t cross the footbridge but keep ahead with the river still on the left. The Dales Way follows the river. Leaving the wood, the River Dee flows in from Dentdale. Go up and over the old railway line, Ingleton to Tebay, finally closed in 1967. 200 metres further along the riverbank look out for a gate by a tree on the left. Go through and continue alongside the river to reach the A683 road (5).

With care and using the verge where possible, turn left on the road for 400 metres to a Dales Way arrow on a post. Cross the road to a narrow kissing gate (Dales Way arrow and signpost to High Oaks) (6). Follow the path along the edge of a field, cross a narrow footbridge, then left and right to reach a narrow lane. Turn left between hedges to arrive at the hamlet of High Oaks. Then turn right.

The Dales Way is signposted through the buildings and along an enclosed path into a field. Go right then bear left, heading onto a rough track between broken hedges, then through a gate to an enclosed track to Luneside Farm. Go through the yard then follow the signs left then right through a small gate into a field. Follow the left edge for 100 metres. Cross the stile, down the steps and continue with the fence on your right and the River Lune on your left, and up to Lincoln’s Inn Bridge and the A684. (7)

Busy road. Take care. Go right for 20 metres, cross to a gate and continue with the river still on the left. Continue along the Dales Way until you cross a ladder stile to reach Crosedale Beck. Look for the footbridge to your right then walk across the field to the Lune Viaduct. This magnificent structure with its stone pillars and steel span used to carry the railway line across the river Lune.

Follow Dales Way signs under the viaduct and zig-zag up the slope, rising away from the river. Cresting the slope (signpost), ahead and to the left is a metal gate in the field corner. Go through the gate and follow the right field edge to reach another gate (stile on right) at Low Branthwaite (8).

Cross the farm drive, Dales Way arrow on post, through a metal gate and here swing left and climb the slope with a hedge to the left to a large ash tree where the hedge joins a wall at a corner. Follow path with wall to left. Dales Way signs lead through two wooden gates to an enclosed path between hedges. As this path opens into a field at a stile and wooden gate, turn right (leaving the Dales Way) on a public footpath through a farm gate. Follow the path behind the barns, passing through a metal gate and past the house on your right. Take the gate on the left through the wall and contour across the sloping field to a stone stile in the corner. Cross this, then a wooden stile and through the gate in the top left corner. Now keep to the right of this field, above the steep bank, then drop down through 2 metal gates to the road, Howgill Lane.

Turn right for 100 metres, and cross the stile on the left, signposted Craggstone Wood. Yellow posts show the way, above the gill on the left. Go through the left of two gates into Craggstone Wood. Look at for the gravestones of a pet cemetery on the left. Go through a gate, up the next field and another gate to the open fell. (9)

Follow an indistinct grassy track up the slope then right, contouring 30- 40m above the fell wall. After 500m pass the end of a stony lane joining from the right at the highest point in the wall (10). Follow the wall for 50m then as the main track swings left up Winder take a path heading diagonally right to a stream crossing. Turn right and follow the path across several small streams, eventually descending to join the fell wall behind Lockbank Farm (11). Go right through gates into the farmyard then go down the tarmac farm road to Howgill Lane.

Turn left for 20 metres then right, signposted Cattle Market (long closed). Take the narrow public footpath between two garages and go straight down an enclosed path to the Spar supermarket on Station Road. Turn left for 30m then cross carefully and go through Sedbergh School gates (12). Continue along the drive and past the cricket pitch. Coming out by St. Andrew’s Church, turn up an alley with the church on your right, to the road opposite the Dalesman Inn.

Cross with care and go right along Main Street back to Sedbergh Information Centre.