Thwaite to Tan Hill Inn
1 SD891982 Head east on the side road by the pub to a sharp bend right. Go through a squeeze stile in a wall between a house and farmyard on the bend, following the footpath past a water station. Fork left into flat sheep meadows. Cross a stream, then fork diagonally right up the hillside towards a gap in a wall, then rise steeply by the wall line to a gate in the far corner.
2 SD896984 Bear diagonally right from the gate. At a wall corner the gradient eases briefly, then begins to rise soon after passing a cow’us (literally a ‘cow-house’, see point 5). Cross a squeeze stile through a wall out of access land, then rise through fields and pass above an isolated farmhouse to a walled green lane.
3 SD903985 Pass a small cow’us leading to a lovely viewpoint by several track junctions near a large cow’us. Fork right towards the cow’us, then left and uphill on a quad track. Leave this on a bend left at a ruined wall, go through fields to an awkward stile, then an undulating line high above the deep valley below roughly contours just left of a wall and through a series of gates. Gently descend over the base of some limestone scree then bend left with the valley. A steeper descent and sudden rise leads to a waymarked junction.
4 NY899007 Fork right through the wall, descending a grassy bank to a junction with the Keld-Muker footpath. Turn left and descend gently to the stonechipped Swale Trail.
5 NY895010 Stay left for a worthwhile detour into Keld (cafés, plus the visitor centre has a wonderful display about cow’usses – traditional twostorey barns with cows kept below in winter and hay/fodder above). Returning to the junction, descend steeply on a well re-constructed cart-track to a footbridge over the River Swale.
6 NY896010 Rise up 6 on a newlyconstructed path to the left of some waterfalls, then turn left at a path junction above the falls. Follow waymarkers past an isolated farmhouse and through a gate onto a walled-in grassy green lane. Bend left around the back of Shot Lathe cow’us keeping a wall line on your left, then follow a vehicle track diverging slowly from the wall to a lovely section of wide open moorland high above the valley where skylarks, terns, oystercatchers and even lapwings can be seen/heard.
7 NY889030 Cross a side stream just below Frith Lodge then join a farm track by a waymarker. Go through a gated ‘penning’ area to the right of a group of cow’usses then ford a shallow stream to return to open moorland. A faint vehicle track guides your way for a while.
This fades to a ‘people track’ beyond Lad Gill’s stone slab footbridge.
8 NY887045 Stepping 8 stones ease a brief section of bog as you climb out the Lad Gill valley then rise left of a shallow eroded valley. The path sidles around the edge of the fell, slowly becoming a vehicle track once more.
9 NY892052 Fork right 9 at a waymarker where the track branches and fades. This rises gently over a series of false plateau tops until the Inn comes into view ahead. Follow a waymarker at a peat hagg, then bend sharp left to
join a grouse-shooters track leading to the Inn. If you’ve arrived too early then it’s worth exploring a pleasant 3km additional loop to find some ruins of the former colliery.