This was another of the walks in the Walks in Limestone Country book, and it was a route that we'd never done before, which is why we had picked it for the 'Best of the Rest challenge' Due to other commitments the only weekend we had free to do the challenge was this weekend. We knew it was going to be busy with it been the Bank Holiday, but we were really surprised at how few people we actually met along the way. If you ignore the hundreds, if not thousands of folks on the summit of Whernside we only met 8 other people all day. It is probably the best way up Whernside as Dentdale is delightful and so peaceful when compared to the Ribblehead approach. You really do need a nice day for it as there would be no protection from the weather along the route. I would also suggest going either after a dry spell or when the ground is frozen otherwise it could be a very wet route as well!
Looking across towards Combe Scar on Middleton Fell from the car park in Dent village
We headed out of the village towards Flinter Gill, passing the village green along the way
Looking back towards Dent from the bottom of Flinter Gill
It's a steep pull but there's plenty of chances to enjoy the views and get your breath back
Me checking out the view indicator at the top of the gill
The view of the Howgill's from it
and the view along Dentdale to the distant Great Knoutberry Hill
It was a lovely spring morning, well apart from the rather cold northerly wind!
At the top of the path up Flinter Gill we joined the 'Occupation Road' which we would follow for the next few miles towards Whernside
Looking back along the lane towards the distant Howgill Fells
Dentdale is probably the least visited of the Yorkshire Dales?
Despite it been a Bank Holiday weekend, we hardly met anyone on the walk, if you ignore the hundreds on the summit of Whernside
As the day went a blanket of grey cloud slowly drifted in from the east and we lost the nice sunshine
As you can see from the state of Tim dog Occupation Road is a bit wet and muddy in places!
Looking across Deepdale towards Whernside
As we reached High Pike we got a glimpse of Ingleborough over the slopes of Whernside
Dentdale and The Howgills from High Pike
The views of Ingleborough got a little better the higher we climbed
Taking a breather at the top of the steepest section of the climb up Whernside, wishing those patches of sun would come our way!
Mission accomplished, Sheena and Tim on the summit of Whernside
It was extremely busy up there, well it was a Bank Holiday!
Looking down the 'Ribblehead' path, there were still hundreds of walkers heading up this path towards Whernside
Our route though was much quieter as we headed towards the distant Whernside Tarns
There were four shown on the map, but this one seems to have dried up!
Looking back towards Whernside from the tarns, you can about make out the line of people heading for the summit?
The biggest of the Whernside Tarns
It was pretty cold and bleak up here today, we even got a few flurries of snow!
That didn't stop Tim taking a quick dip in the tarn though
From the tarns we made a slight detour from the main path to check out some large cairns we had spotted
Looking down into Dentdale, with the Lakeland Fells on the skyline
Heading back down towards Dent along the Craven Way
The small Methodist Church near to Mill Bridge
This is supposed to be the River Dee, it must have been pretty dry here for a while?
Looking back across the fields at Whernside as we followed The Dales Way back to Dent
Almost there!
Just the short walk back the cobbled main street in Dent to the car
I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the photograph's from this walk? If you have any questions or comments regarding them or the walk in general, please either leave a message below, or send me an email, and I will get back to you asap. Thanks Gary ...
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Our last walk was a visit to Angle Tarn in Patterdale
Our next walk was the ascent Orrest Head from Windermere
Other Yorkshire Dales walks Check out our other 'Wainwright Walks' 2010 walks journalAll of the photograph's from this walk were taken using my Sony A700 camera or Sheena's Canon Ixus 100IS camera
© www.mywainwrights.co.uk (This page was last updated - 23 May 2010)
