Muker – Bentham Footpath Group

Keld to Muker meadows

6.9 miles | 11.2 km | 408 m Ascent | 9.0 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
Bentham Footpath Group has started walks from Keld before – it’s at the top end of Swaledale. On the last occasion – in November 2022 – we headed up to Whitsundale, seeing the rivers that merge to form the Swale in full flow.
This slightly gentler summer walk takes us downstream to Muker via the Pennine Way, where having explored the village a little we walk through the ever popular wildflower meadows before returning on the far side of the river via Swinner Gill then Crackpot Hall and finally East Stonesdale waterfalls. You will notice from the gallery that the Swale was barely a trickle after a prolonged dry spell – such a contrast to our last visit.

Gunnerside and Old Gang Smelt Mill

Challenging

10.4 miles | 16.7 km | 927 m Ascent | 15.0 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
We tend to think of the Yorkshire Dales as a rural idyll, but there is also a great deal of industrial heritage to be found. This walk starts in the lovely village of Gunnerside in Swaledale and then heads up Gunnerside Gill into an area that from the 15th to 19th centuries was the centre of a vast lead mining industry.
We explore remains of the lead mining sites – now mostly reclaimed by nature, before taking the steep scramble to cross Melbecks moor where we find an altogether bleaker and more damaged landscape –the result of lead smelting. This is where we find the Old Gang Smelt Mill, a much larger and toxic operation than the remains we saw at Gunnerside.
From there we walk down to Surrender bridge and then take a return route along the side of Swaledale with fantastic views up the valley to Muker and beyond or down toward Reeth and the North Yorks Moors.

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