Beautiful Dentdale

Walk information

Distance: 7.6 km (4.75 miles)

Time: 2 - 3 hours

Maps: OS Explorer Sheet OL2

Parking: Pay & Display car park at Dent

Refreshments: Pubs, cafes and shops at Dent.

How to get there: From Sedbergh in the western Yorkshire Dales, head south-east along a minor road to reach the village of Dent.

Terrain: Rough stony/grassy tracks for most of the way, with some road walking and field/riverside paths to finish. Several stiles to cross, and rough/muddy paths in places. Long climb up onto the Occupation Road (track).

Caution: Some of the paths are muddy and muddy underfoot. Take care walking along the roads.

Points of interest

DENTDALe is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful valleys in England, and the little village of Dent is just lovely with its cobblestone lanes and whitewashed houses. It is a pleasure just to simply wander along its narrow streets. At its heart stands St Andrew’s Church, which can trace its history back to Norman times. Inside is a wealth of interest, including a checker-pattern tiled floor made from the famous Dent Marble. This is a black-grey hard limestone that has been quarried locally for centuries and is particularly rich in crinoid fossils, so when it is cut and polished it creates stunning patterns, and was most popular for fireplace surrounds.

In the centre of Dent stands a large granite boulder, a memorial to Adam Sedgwick, one of the founders of modern geology who was born at Dent in 1785. He became Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge University. Dent was also once famous for its ‘terrible knitters’, as local people used to supplement their meagre farming income by knitting woollen clothing. They were so quick at knitting that they became known as the terrible knitters; terrible in the sense of quick!

The track that heads up Flinter Gill is a wonderful old route, with spring flowers, overhanging trees and a tumbling stream. Here you will find the Dancing Flags, where the stream has exposed a flat bed of limestone blocks that was once used by the weavers of Dent to soak the woven fabric, thus making it shrink to create a thicker fabric. It is called the dancing flags because they used to lay out the fabric and then walk across it; I do not recommend you do this, as the limestone blocks are extremely slippery. Further up alongside the track is the Wishing Tree, where it is said your wish will come true if you walk clockwise through the tree three times. Climbing up, we soon emerge from the trees to find a viewfinder up to our right, and what a view it is! The Lake District, Howgill Fells, lush pastures of Dentdale and the high fells around Whernside are all clearly visible. We soon join the Occupation Road (marked as Green Lane on the Map, known local as the ‘Occy’. This route dates back centuries as it was an important drovers route across the hills. When the common land was enclosed in the late 18th Century (or ‘occupied’), this route was enclosed by walls. The views from this wonderful hill level track are simply stunning.

The final part of this walk heads down Nun House Outrake into Deepdale, and then down onto the pastures of Dentdale to follow a stream side path, passing ancient farms along the way.

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The walk

1 From the National Park car park on the edge of Dent (with your back to the car park and facing the ‘National School 1845’), cross the road and take the road opposite to the left (Dragon Croft) and follow this road up to soon open out onto the village green to your left, with its play area. Carry straight on along the road (signpost ‘Flinter Gill’ and ‘Unsuitable for Motors’), and follow the road up passing between the white-washed cottages and Zion Chapel (meditation centre) to reach the end of the road at the last house (Ghyll Head). Carry straight on along the stony track ahead (Flinter Gill), passing the ‘Dancing Flags’ on your left (caution: rock is slippery) and through a gate. After the gate, continue along the clear stony track rising up through woodland (passing the ‘Wishing Tree’), with the ravine of Flinter Gill on your left, for 300 metres to reach a gate across the track, with the old High Ground farmstead to your right (short detour to see the old farming implements). After the gate, continue up along the stony track passing a lime kiln and on for 400 metres to reach another gate at the top of the woodland (track begins to level off), with a viewing point just up to your right (worth the detour). After this gate, carry on along the track alongside the wall on your left rising up for 325 metres to reach a bench beside a gate, just beyond which you come to a T-junction with the enclosed ‘Occupation Road’ track (signpost).

2 Turn left along the enclosed track (signpost ‘High Moss’), bending sharp left over a bridge across the upper reaches of Flinter Gill after 125 metres then sharp right. After the bridge and bends, continue along the clear enclosed grassy track for 1.9 km (about 20 to 30 minutes walking) all the way to reach a T-junction with another track (signpost), just beyond a ‘sunken’ bridge across the upper reaches of How Gill (stream). Turn left along this track through a gate (signpost ‘Nun House Outrake’) and follow this clear, enclosed rough track heading steadily downhill back down into Dentdale for 1.2 km (15 minutes or so) to join a clearer lane beside High Nun House on your left. Continue straight on down this lane to soon reach a road across your path (couple of houses).

3 Turn left along the narrow road (take care) and follow it for 600 metres to reach the hamlet of Slack, a cluster of houses and farms on either side of the road (note the treehouse), where you continue straight on along the road for a further 400 metres heading down to reach a T-junction at a small triangular green, and an old road sign and bench. As you reach the road junction, bear left at the fork (passing to the left side of the small triangular ‘green’) to quickly reach the T-junction with the road, where you head straight over along the enclosed track opposite (signpost ‘Double Croft Lane’). Follow this walled track straight on down for 250 metres to reach Double Croft House. Where the track bends left into the gardens of the house, turn left through a narrow squeeze stile just before this, then walk straight on across the field alongside the wall on your right (passing the house on your right) to reach a wall-gate to your right towards the end of the field, after which turn left along the enclosed grassy path (How Gill stream on your left, which was dry when I walked this route) to soon reach a gate at the end of the enclosed path. Head through the gate and carry straight on alongside the fence/hedge and How Gill stream on your left for 150 metres then curving round to the left (ponds to your right), over a small stream then straight on across the middle of the field (ponds across to your right) to reach a gate at the end of the field and a small footbridge. After the footbridge, follow the path to the left alongside the stream on your left (there are actually two streams at this point) to soon reach a gate, after which head through another small gate in the wall just opposite to the left (stream and ford to your left). After the small gate, walk on across the field (stream on your left), and through a small gate at the end of this field, after which walk on along the stream-side path to soon reach a footbridge to your left. Cross the footbridge then turn immediately right, then carry on walking alongside the stream (stream is called Keld) on your right across several fields to reach Church Bridge (road bridge), where Keld stream joins the River Dee. Walk up the steps onto the bridge, then turn left along the road back into Dent.

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