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5th August: A ride Tan Hill and the Upper Eden Valley

Enjoying afternoon refreshments at Tan Hill

Yes I was few minutes late,  I always seem to miss judge how long it takes to get from Halton to Kirkby Stephen and for record, I have allow my self  a hour next time we start from Kirkby Stephen. Anyway I was last to arrive and yes I will promise I will be early for start of the next ride, after I got my bike out of back the van, the eight of us headed in Kirkby Stephen for morning coffee, I don’t know what they put in Geoff tea but he was our chief path finder for most of the day and with Nick’s Stomach full (The main reason you  find him trailing at the back is that he’s  not eaten enough or eaten to much, our chairman suffers from the same problem as well!) it was safe to leave the cafe and headed into the hills.

We headed out of Kirkby Stephen on the A685 for short distance before following the lanes through Hartley Fold, then to Winton, then we headed through the hamlets of Rookby and Heggerscales. After crossing over Coldkeld Bridge, we continue on until the tarmac ran out, we then followed the bridleway down past Wrenside Farm, then cross over Great Stowgill, this is where the track follows the boundary wall around to the banks of the River Belah, which cross over via a ford or stepping stones (sorry no photos of the crossing of the ford). We then continue up the valley, through field full of cows and one bull, after short steep climb out of the valley bottom, the track follow the edge of wood for short distance before coming out on moorland where we stop for some lunch.

After lunch we continue on up Woofer Gill, then headed towards Greenhope Howe (please note that track goes around left hand side of this outcrop) then after bit of pushing the bikes through moorland and short climb up Potter Side we rejoin the tarmac about 100 feet from the signpost for the bridleway (please note this not well used bridleway  we took about 2 hours to do it but well worth doing).

Has I looking headline grabbing ride, after Lancashire Group ride over Rylstone Fell which was hard to beat as about 70 % of the ride was off-road, so we continue up the tarmac for good mile to stop for afternoon refreshments at Tan Hill the highest pub in England.

After spending just under hour at Tan Hill, we retrace steps back down national cycle route 71, then after crossing over Mousegill Bridge, we followed the road around South Stainmore, to Clatteringdike Nook, where we followed another under use bridleway to Slapstone Bridge on the A66, we then followed the A66 for short distance to Hardhills, where we followed the Roman Road down to Brough Sowerby and then followed the A685 back into Kirkby Stephen, got back to cars for 5pm.

Map used Ordnance Survey OL19 Howgill Fells & Upper Eden Valley.

Simeon Orme