13.2km/8.2 miles/4-5 hours
Ascent 550m/1800ft
Ian Battersby steps through a doorway to a deserted dale and ridge
Bretherdale sits where the Lake District meets the Yorkshire Dales, and its high ground gazes into both National Parks. A gritty, lonely lane shadows a beck hemmed in by bushes, trees and wildflowers, as unseen fish ring placid pools between crazy loops of beck beneath the buzz of dippers and high haunting buzzard cries. Steep slopes swing down from patchwork pastures,
