continue over a crossing path, dropping through a kissing-gate across grass to emerge onto Busk Lane. Opposite, a sign to Birks directs you along a track beside the rugby pitches. Reaching a barn, bear off right through a wooden kissing-gate and carry on along a field, where a developing path rises around Birks House and leads out onto Birks Lane.
To the left, it winds down to Birks Mill, a path at the end on the left following the now disused tailrace between the trees to the River Rawthey, which here has cut its course through slabs of blue slate bedrock.
After passing the confluence with the River Dee flowing from Dentdale, the way breaks out at the edge of fields, where there is a fine view to Winder, the southwestern outpost of the Howgill Fells. Having clambered over the embankment of a disused railway line, the path becomes enclosed behind Brigflatts and eventually leads out to the main road.
The railway, carried high above the river on a striking cast-iron skew bridge, ran from Ingleton to Lowgill at the foot of the Lune Gorge, where it connected with the main west coast route to Carlisle.
Cross and follow the road left past the entrance to Ingmire Caravan Park, continuing for a further ¼ mile (400m) to find a path leaving through a kissing-gate and signed to High Oaks. Negotiating a stream at the far side of the field, bear left over the shoulder of a small hillock.
At the far corner, a hedged path leads to the cottages at High Oaks. Go right and then left to the corner of a track. Turn right between the buildings to a second junction and there walk right again, climbing away on a hedged grass track.
Through a small gate at the end, a sign directs you right to Lincoln’s Inn Bridge. Ignore a path shortly signed off to Ingmire, and instead, continue to a gate in the far corner. Carry on at the field edge and then along a hedged track to Luneside.
Wind right through the farmyard, as if to leave along the access track, but almost immediately bear off through a gate on the left. Head for a lone ash and then follow the fence to a stile, the path falling beyond to accompany the riverbank up to Lincoln’s Inn Bridge.
Lincoln’s Inn Bridge was built in the 17th century
Go along the road a short distance to the right, crossing to a track signed through a gate to Low Branthwaite. Before long the imposing Lune Viaduct at Waterside comes into view, but before it is Crosdale Beck, which, after rain, may involve a paddle.
THE LUNE VIADUCT
Part of the same Ingleton branch line encountered earlier, the Lune Viaduct has three towering stone arches either side of a massive, cast-iron central span. The engineer was Joseph Locke, who started out as an apprentice under George Stephenson on the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester railways. Early railways avoided hills and followed the snaking canals, but Locke gained a reputation for his bold use of gradients to achieve shorter routes. This dramatically reduced both construction cost and time, and was matched by increasingly powerful locomotives. The Ingleton project was one of the last upon which he worked, for Locke died suddenly at the age of 55 from appendicitis, in 1860, just a year before the line opened.
After passing beneath the bridge, bear right up the bank, signs at the top directing you right to a gate and stile. Carry on above Crosdale Beck to emerge onto a track from Low Branthwaite Farm. Go right, leaving immediately beyond a bridge over a stile on the right.
Climb left to a small, gated stile, from which the onward path is signed to the Height of Winder – indeed, Winder itself looms straight ahead as you walk up the field. Walk on, cutting the bottom right corner and climbing to a small gate. Bear left upfield, passing buildings and over a crossing track to a gated stile in the top wall onto Slacks Lane.
Walk right for 150m to a gate on the left beneath a sign to Underwinder. Head out alongside a couple of fields to cottages at Ash-hining. Turn into the yard, but exit immediately through a second gate on the right. Bear right across to a ladder stile beside a gate in the far wall, and contour the hillside to reach yet another farm and cottages at Underwinder.
Entering the yard, go right, and then turn left through a gate beside the end cottage, walking up past its garden to the field behind. Climb away at the perimeter of a couple of fields to emerge through a gate at the top onto Howgill Lane. To the right, it eventually takes you back into Sedbergh.
Sunset on the Howgills
WALK 3
Winder, Calders and the Calf
| Start | Sedbergh (SD657921) |
| Distance | 9¾ miles (15.7km) |
| Height gain | 855m (2805ft) |
| Time | 4hr45 |
| Terrain | Indistinct upland trods; a stream crossing may involve a paddle, return along a lane. |
| OS map | Explorer OL19 – Howgill Fells & Upper Eden Valley |
| Refreshments | Pubs and cafés in Sedbergh |
| Toilets | Beside car parks |
| Parking | Car parks in Sedbergh (pay and display) |
The grassy flanks of the Howgills rear as a formidable backdrop to Sedbergh, the peripheral summits serving as stepping-stones to the cluster of higher summits behind. The first pull is the most exacting, and leads over Winder and Calders onto the Calf, the highest point of the group of hills. This climb has been a traditional challenge for pupils of famous Sedbergh School, and is immortalised in the refrain of their ancient song:
…’Tis the hills that are stood around us, unchanged since our days began. It is Cautley, Calf and WINDER, that make the Sedbergh man.
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