Giggleswick Scar

Easy

7.4 miles | 11.9 km | 400m Ascent | 9.4 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
This walk starts from Giggleswick Village and then heads up through Lord’s Wood, past the quarry, to join the top of Giggleswick Scar at Schoolboy’s Tower where we get great views across the Ribble valley. From there we walk along the top of the scar until we meet the path coming up from Buck Haw Brow, when we head North to Feizor Thwaite.
A sharp turn back along the Pennine journey path brings us down to Stackhouse, and from there we stroll back to Giggleswick along the side of the Ribble at Settle.
Although this walk is classed as easy because it’s (marginally) less than 12 km, be aware that there is a steep climb and some terrain that can be wet and slippery in poor weather.

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Whitsundale from Keld

Moderate

8.1 miles | 13.1 km | 578 m Ascent | 11.0 Naismith miles | Jim Shuttleworth
Swaledale is a great place to walk, and Keld is always a good place to start; There is convenient parking at Park Lodge farmyard with a handy tearoom serving locally made ice creams during the summer season.
Swaledale is famous for its fast flowing river, and this is so because a number of side dales each with their own river merge with the Swale within a short distance of each other.
As well as Swaledale itself, this moderate walk visits three of the side dales that connect with Swaledale – East Stonesdale, West Stonesdale and Whitsundale.
Most of the route is on clearly marked paths – some of them long distance routes, and there is some road walking on quiet roads, so navigation should be simple. Be aware through that Swaledale can be very wet, and as you can see from the gallery, winter walks in this area can damp and windy. Don’t let that put you off though – this is a walk to savour at any time of the year.

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Cowan Bridge, Ireby and Masongill

Moderate

7.5 miles | 12.0 km | 299 m Ascent | 8.9 Naismith miles | Mary & Kate Taylor
Although Bentham Footpath Group regard anywhere in the Yorkshire Dales, the South Lakes or Forest of Bowland as “home”, this walk really is local – and it reminds us just how much wonderful walking lies on our doorstep.
This route takes the form of a figure 8, so there are clear opportunities to walk either loop independently, or to combine them as we have here, to create a moderate walk with great views.
We start with a pleasant stroll along Leck Beck, then take a quiet road up Leck Fell before heading down green lanes to Todgill farm – where the two loops of the walk cross – and from there to Ireby. We then go via Over Hall and Stirragap to Masongill, and back over fields to Ireby again. We then follow a quiet lane back to Cowan Bridge via Leck.

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Long Preston

Challenging

9.8 miles | 15.8 km | 462m Ascent | 12.1 Naismith miles | David Longton
Long Preston is a small village that many people drive through on the way to better known destinations in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s well worth stopping though to explore this village and the excellent walks that can be accessed from it.
The walk we present here is classified as challenging simply because it just exceeds our 15km limit for a moderate walk – but much of the route is on tracks, or minor roads, and there are no steep climbs, so if you feel comfortable with our moderate walks give this one a go too. There are some shortcuts highlighted.
As you can see from the gallery, we picked a wet day to walk it, but in better weather, the views over the Ribble Valley, and the flood plains south of Settle are well worth seeing, as is Scaleber Foss at the halfway point.

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Levens And Sedgewick

Moderate

8.0 miles | 12.8 km | 322 m Ascent | 9.6 Naismith miles | Ed Badley
The Kent estuary and the surrounding hills may not be as spectacular as the Northern end of the Lake District, but they are filled with interesting history, great views, and much quieter paths.
This walk is classed as moderate – simply because it’s fractionally longer than our 12 km break point, and takes in riverside paths, a waterless canal, 16th century halls, an Elizabethan manor house, a deer park, and a herd of Bagot Goats.
Pick a bright autumn day and the woodland colours are spectacular – as you can see in the gallery.

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Norber Erratics

Easy

5.9 miles | 9.5 km | 348 m Ascent | 7.6 Naismith miles | Graham Cooper
A quick glance at the “Big Map” page on our website shows just how much Bentham Footpath Group favours Austwick as a base for walks, and a look at today’s gallery clearly shows why.
For this easy walk, we park near the Traddock Inn and stroll through Austwick and out to the Horton Road where we pick up Townhead Lane to start the climb up to the Erratics. When we meet the Pennine Bridleway we take left to enter the fields that lead up to the Erratics, where we explore for a while, before heading across Nappa Scars and over to the Wash Dubs. From there we walk gently downhill to Wharfe and across to Wood Lane which we follow as far as Austwick Bridge, and the Traddock.

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Austwick

Easy

6.4 miles | 10.3 km | 305 m Ascent | 7.9 Naismith miles | Bernie & Sheila Garrett
This circular walk starts from Austwick– where there is generally parking available free of charge on the roadside: For this walk we start by the Traddock Hotel.
We stroll through Austwick and out to the Horton Road where we pick up the footpath over Flascoe Bridge before taking the bridleway over to Feizor. The Dales Highway then takes us up toward Little Stainforth, but before we get that far we divert up to Smearsett Scar, before looping round to enter the top of Wharfe Wood.
We walk through Wharfe Woods, and then through parts of Oxenber wood before heading back downhill to Wood Lane which we follow as far as Austwick Bridge, and the Traddock.

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Backbarrow and Bigland tarn

Challenging

9.6 miles | 15.4 km | 530 m Ascent | 12.2 Naismith miles | Susan Badley
The Cartmel Peninsula is a popular starting point for walks, and it features in a number of BFG routes.
This circular walk starts at Low Woods near the River Leven just South of Haverthwaite, then tracks up the valley to Backbarrow. We cross the Fell to Hazelrigg and work South to Seatle. From there we walk through woodland to High Cark, and cross Seatle Plantation to visit Bigland Tarn before working down steepish woodland paths back to our start.
This is quite a long walk, so we list it as challenging, but there are no particularly steep climbs nor difficult terrain, and the views toward Windermere and the Southern Lakeland Fells pay dividends, so if this is slightly longer than your normal limit, it’s still worthy of consideration.

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Stocks Reservoir

Moderate

7.6 miles | 12.3 km | 329 m Ascent | 9.2 Naismith miles | Don Cartledge
Stocks Reservoir is just a short drive from Bentham over interesting roads with great views, and when you get there, the choice of walks is impressive.
This walk starts from the causeway linking the two parts of the reservoir, and then loops around the southern, and much larger, part of the reservoir.
At the time of the walk the reservoir levels were deliberately very low – as part of engineering works to increase capacity in the long term.
On the way round this relatively flat route, we see signs of the buildings that were abandoned to enable construction, traces of the railway that enabled materials to be imported, and foundations for the village that temporarily housed the army of builders.

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Staveley Tarns

Easy

7.0 miles | 11.3 km | 477 m Ascent | 9.4 Naismith miles | Kate Rowe
Staveley is a great place to walk, and one that the Bentham Footpath Group has often visited: Not only is the area beautiful, but it’s easily accessible, and relatively quiet when compared with the “honeypot” towns of Kendal and Windermere, between which it sits.
This walk falls within the distance and ascent parameters for a BFG “easy” walk, but you should expect some steep climbing as we set of to find three of the tarns on Potter Fell: Potter Tarn itself, then Gurnal Dubs, and finally Ghyll Pool.
We return via Hundhowe and Hagg Foot and then track upstream along the banks of the river Kent as it winds through the woodland at Beckmingle Ing.

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