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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 back 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 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 after the railway, 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, turn left on the road for 400 metres. A footpath on the right (6) leads across fields and a footbridge to hamlet of The Oaks. The Dales Way is signposted through the buildings and along an enclosed path into a field. Go right then bear left, heading into a path between broken hedges, then through a gate to an enclosed path to Luneside Farm. Through the yard follow the signs to cross a field to the left edge. In 100 metres cross a 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. On reaching 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 rising away from the river, to reach Low Branthwaite (8) and here swing left. Dales Way signs lead through two gates to a path between hedges. As this path opens into a field, turn right (leaving the Dales Way) and go behind the barns and past the house. Take the gate on the left and go up the field and through the gate in the top left corner. Now keep to the right of this field, above the steep bank, then drop down to the road, Howgill Lane.
Care on road. 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. Through a gate, up the next field and another gate to the open fell. (9)
Indistinct paths go ahead for 100 metres then go right, staying a short way 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 and now the site of a Spar supermarket. Go straight down an enclosed path to the main road, Station Road. Turn left for 30 meters 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.