Wensleydale - UMHC Hiking Guide

From UMHC Hiking Guide

Wensleydale, general view looking south towards Hawes

1 The Walks
2 Eating and Drinking
3 Travel
4 Gallery Links
5 Trip Report

The Walks

Wensleydale is further into the east of the Yorkshire Dales and provides access to some of the wilder and quieter moors in the national park. Hawes is the usual starting base and gives easy access to all of the high moors surrounding it.

Snow on Lovely Seat - moorland east of Great Shunner Fell

The vast expanse of moor east of Lovely Seat

Great Shunner Fell at 716m is the highest summit in the area. It is also the remotest, being about 10km from Hawes. The moor has a great wilderness feeling that few other places in the Yorkshire Dales have and it is a nice place to be in late Autumn and Winter when the grass is golden and the sun is low. The view out to the north is very wild. The moor has a large number of cairns on some of the slopes for those who are historically minded.

Big cairns found right across the moors

To the east of Great Shunner Fell lies Lovely Seat at 670m. There lies a road between the two summits rising up to 526m - but the hiking club bus can't reach it so we just have to start at Wensleydale. Lovely Seat rises about 40m above the vast moorland that extends eastwards. The moor is very similar to Bleaklow in the Peak District in that it's vast, flat but very rough with deep peat hags. The moor of Lovely Seat has a fence going along its spine - makes navigation easier!

Looking south across Wensleydale from Lovely Seat to Widdale Fell

Mid Wensleydale

To the south lies Dodd Fell at 668m. This moor has a Roman road leading up to the summit plateau from Bainbridge. The Romans built the roads on the high tops and ridges instead of the valleys as these were more defensible. They also had a tendency to build roads that were dead straight - this location was no exception.

Dodd Fell seen from above Bainbridge

Bainbridge and the summit behind it (whatever it's called!)

Out to the South-West of Hawes lies Widdale Fell at 672m. This summit lies close to the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway. It also gives some smashing views down Dentdale

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Eating and Drinking

The cheese factory is a famous attraction that many club members goes to. It is Wallace and Gromit that eat Wensleydale cheese and you too can eat the same stuff! There are also a few pubs and teashops to go to.

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