Main Street – Bentham Footpath Group

Sedbergh, Brigflatts and Millthrop

6.3miles | 10.2 km | 217 m Ascent | 7.4 Naismith miles | Terri Kwiecinska
People often associate Sedbergh with the Howgills and steep climbs such as Cautley Spout, Winder or The Calf. These are indeed great options, but there are gentler walks from Sedbergh, and that’s what we offer here.
We start in the town centre and then take a route past the parish church to Birks, then walk over flat fields to the historic Friends Meeting House at Brigflatts. We backtrack slightly and take a disused railway line to the river Rawthey which we follow upstream to a footbridge at Birks. We cross this and then head across a golf course to the rather lovely Abbot Holme Bridge, then follow the Dee upstream to Dent Foot Chapel and Rash Bridge. From there we cross and at Rash climb through a couple of fields to pick up the Dales Way into Millthrop, before crossing the Rawthey again and returning to Sedbergh. Overall then we get to see lots of the Howgills in their autumnal colours without needing to actually climb them.

Yarnbury Lead Mines and Mossdale

Challenging

9.9miles | 16.0 km | 333 m Ascent | 11.6 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
This walk can be considered to connect with at least two other Bentham Footpath Group walks: It physically shares part of the route of our Copplestone Gate and Conistone Pie walk, and although in a different part of the Yorkshire Dales, it shares much of the industrial heritage of the Gunnerside and Old Gang Smelt Mill walk.
The first half of the walk heads across Downs Pasture to the top of the Dib at Conistone, with great views of the Wharfe Valley and as far South as Pendle Hill. From there we head up the Bycliffe Road to Kelber Gate and then on to Mossdale Scar. The return journey takes us over Grassington Moor and through increasingly bleak, but strangely beautiful lead mining spoils back to the mines at Yarnbury where we spend a while exploring the remnants of this once vast industry.
We rate this walk as Challenging mainly because it’s quite long. There are no particularly steep climbs and there are options to shorten the route if needed.

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