Ravenstonedale to Appleby

Ravenstonedale to Appleby

The final stage of the Dales High Way started, for me, at Ravenstonedale but the photographs start just after Newbiggin where the road to Great Asby leaves the main road.

The road soon crosses a cattle grid and onto....

.....moor land. The barn on the right marks the point on the left side of the road where....

.....a path runs parallel to the road...

.....before heading off to cross a farm track.

Then it crosses the moor past a walled enclosure..

.....as it crosses Ravenstonedale Moor..

.....and drops to a footbridge before climbing ..

.....giving views to the north if Sunbiggin Tarn.

There's a curious geological feature with the stream from the tarn forming an enormous U shaped loop around a hillock.

The path follows the stream....

......to reach a minor road which is followed for a few hundred metres..

....before the DHW branches off to the left..

.....to begin the climb towards Great Kinmond.

Once through the gate a path climbs to a saddle.....

....just to the left of Great Kinmond. There's a real treat in store ahead.

The limestone pavement here is the second most extensive in England (after those near Ingleborough and Chapel-le-Dale)

Click on the image for a larger view.

Just off to the right of the path there's a cairn which, apparently, is an excellent viewpoint to the Lakeland fells, the Pennines and the Howgills but, sadly, not on this day.

The paths here are a little confusing especially since the waymark discs are worn!

However, a clear path downhill emerges and..

.....passing more limestone pavements....

...follows a fence...

...to reach a particularly lethal gate. On opening it one of the stones on the wall fell off - luckily away from me...

The path now follows a wall...

....as the lowlands are approached.

The map shows a "settlement" and there are curious bumps in the field. The ancient monuments website records this as "Earthwork remains of a Romano-British enclosed settlement containing hut circles.

English Heritage has the following to say:

The monument is a Romano-British enclosed hut circle settlement located on a gently sloping north-east facing hillside 350m west of Maisongill. It includes an enclosure wall of turf-covered limestone rubble and earth up to 4.5m wide and 1.5m high. There is a narrow 2.5m wide entrance on the north-west side of the enclosure where the wall has been widened to 6.5m on either side of the opening. This entrance leads into a large sub-rectangular enclosure with a circular depression 6.5m in diameter at the eastern corner which is the site of a hut circle. On the north-east side of the enclosure wall is a second entrance measuring 5m wide. This gives access to a number of irregularly shaped stock pens, some of which have been partly disturbed by later quarrying, and another sunken hut circle approximately 6.5m in diameter, also partly quarried. On the south side of the enclosure wall is a third entrance measuring 4.5m wide with a slight causeway leading inwards via a passageway from the opening. This gives access to a group of sub-rectangular stock pens and two sunken hut circles entered from the passageway: the smaller measuring 6.4m diameter, the larger being oval in plan and measuring 10m by 7.3m. A modern drystone wall running across the south-eastern corner of the monument is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath it is included.

The Dales High Way heads briefly down the lane to Masongill Farm....

...and almost immediately through a stile to cross a succession...

.....of gated fields...

.....before arriving at the very untidy farm at Cockeld.

I was greeted here by three very noisy geese---pity I couldn't record the sound!

Once beyond the farm a paved lane is followed...

...pleasantly downhill..

....to Town Head.

A little further Great Asby is reached with the Asby Gill...

The church in Great Asby with the way forward going off to the left..

.....and climbing...

....to reach a crossroads where the way forward goes left....

.....along another lane.

At a bend in the road the DHW heads for Howe Slacks...

....and after passing the farm buildings..

...becomes a stream or riverside path almost the whole way to Appleby.

The path crosses Scale Beck..

and then crosses meadows by the side of Hoff Beck

It's a very pleasant walk with trees and the stream but there's another surprise ahead.

Rutter Falls is an attractive waterfall with adjacent mill building. Before entering the River Eden near Appleby, Hoff Beck cascades over a rock step to produce the falls, then flows over the road forming a ford. The converted mill offers self-catering accommodation

Fortunately for pedestrians there's a footbridge.

The old workers' cottages.

The Dales High Way heads off along the river bank..

....across meadows...

.....to reach a footbridge where it crosses to the opposite bank.

Beyond here the going was quite rough as cattle grazing in the field have made the ground anything but smooth.

There's a fairly substantial bridge for road traffic but the path stays on the right bank..

....until a bit further on. The footbridge's foundations have suffered severe damage in recent floods.

Then it's along a farm track ...

to reach a paved lane on the approach to Hoff.

The main Appleby to Kendal road is crossed at Hoff ...

...and then past some houses..

....and through gates to reach...

...the banks of the Hoff Beck again.

The path crosses meadows before...

....the trees close in and...

....the steep river banks show recent flood damage. A bit of scrambling was needed to get to the steps that took the path quite high above the beck before..