Storm Desmond

Pikedaw Hill and Malham

Moderate

7.8 miles | 12.6 km | 525 m Ascent | 10.5 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
Malham is one of the “honeypot” villages of the Yorkshire Dales – and the use of the Cove as a backdrop for filming “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” has made it even more popular. There’s more to this area than the Cove though – stunning as it is – and if you pick a weekday out of season, you can still enjoy a quiet walk. This moderately challenging walk starts in Malham, with a steep climb up Pikedaw Hill, offering great views back to Malham and over toward Pendle.
We pass Nappa Cross, then head down the spectacular dry valley at Watlowes to the top of the Cove, where we take the Dales Highway path to Goredale Bridge and return to Malham village via the always delightful Janet’s Foss path. We grade the walk as moderate, but be aware that the first section is relentlessly steep, and potentially quite boggy – and that the dry valley requires particular care.

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Barbon Low Fell

Moderate

7.6 miles | 12.2 km | 553 m Ascent | 10.4 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Several Bentham Footpath Group walks start in or pass through Barbon – a reflection of the fact that this pretty village is accessible, and a good base for walks up onto the surrounding fells.
This one explores Barbon Low Fell: We start at the Community Hall in Barbon, and then take the riverside path through Barbon Park until we find the footbridge over Barbon Beck. From there we take the Footpath up toward Bull Beck, but before we get that far we strike out over access land to Hoggs Hills where we enjoy great coastal views.
Finally, we head down to Fell Garth, and strike out North through fields back to Barbon.

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Ullswater Way (linear)

Challenging

11.0 miles | 17.6 km | 786 m Ascent | 14.9 Naismith miles | Ed Badley
Most of the walks that Bentham Footpath Group offers are circular, but this challenging walk on the Ullswater Way uses public transport to get us back to the starting point – which means that we can cover almost half of the route around the entire lake in one go.
The Ullswater way covers 21 miles in four self-contained sections, 2 of which we cover on this walk: Pooley Bridge to Aira Force via Maiden Castle is about 7 miles –or we press on to Glenridding – a further 4 miles, where the bus awaits.
The notes cover the full 11 mile distance, but we would rate the walk as “moderate” if the shorter route is selected.

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Wennington

Challenging

12.7 miles | 20.5 km | 371 m Ascent | 14.6 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
This walk gives us the opportunity to explore some of the excellent walking country right on our doorstep.
We start in Wray just a few minutes’ drive from Bentham, and walk back to Wennington before heading over to Wrayton. From there we walk back down the Lune Valley to Loyn Bridge and then into Hornby before returning to Wray.
This walk offers a wide variety of landscapes. There are a good number of stiles, but none of the hills are steep.
We grade it as challenging simply because it’s quite long, and if you wanted a shortened version, cutting back to Hornby from Loyn Bridge along the road would be viable.

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