How to walk to Flintergill in Dent

Directions (to be used in conjunction with a map)

1. Beginning from the Village Car Park, head out of the car park entrance to the road directly opposite, Dragon Croft. There is the primary school on the right hand side of the road. Follow this road up as it heads past the play area on the left and then becomes Flintergill as it continues.

2. Continue to follow the road until it becomes an unsurfaced track. Here on your right, you will see the signpost for Flinter Gill pointing into the woodland. Follow this.

3. Immediately as you enter the woodland, you will see on your left the sign for dancing flags. If you head down to the flags here and head upstream you will find the waterfall pictured above. Be careful though as the limestone can get very very slippery!

4. Continue up the track as it passes through a gate, and then you will soon see the wishing tree on your left (pictured above). The legend is that you have to walk around the wishing tree three times in a clockwise direction to have your wishes granted!

5. Simply continue to follow the track as it heads steeply upwards through the woodland. There are fabulous spring flowers to be found here! Soon, on your right hand side you will see a gate with an outbuilding signposted High Ground Farmstead - To View. Go view it! It is a part of the Dent Heritage Centre and it houses some old farm machinery to take a look at.

6. Once you have checked this out, return to the track, and turn right, continuing uphill. You will see the excavated remains of an old lime kiln here, with some information about it, on your left. Just after this point, is the first point where you could cut this walk short. The path heads down to more limestone flags where the old quarry was. It crosses the beck and heads up the other side, you can then turn left, head back downhill through the field until the path reaches a farm track. Keep heading downhill on the track until you get back into Dent.

7. If you’re still with us, then keep heading up! The water of the beck drops away into a deep gorge on your left, and then will emerge out of the woodland. Here you can take a detour to the right to the viewpoint, the view is stunning from here and there is a plaque tell you exactly what you are looking at.

8. Head back to the track and continue up to the old Occupation Road (also known as Green Lane), a large wide stony track which forms a T junction with the top of the path emerging from Flintergill. Locally known as ‘the Occy’, the road links Barbondale and Kingsdale and is enclosed between walls all the way along, making this super easy to navigate!

9. At the gate at the top of the track, turn left on the Occy, heading in the direction of Kingsdale and Whernside. Follow this track for around 1.5 miles until you reach a T junction. You will cross a little stream, there is a wooden footpath sign ahead and a wooden gate on your left. Turn left down the path marked ‘public bridleway Nun House Outrake 1 mile’.

10. The path is very muddy in places, but soon turns into a wide rocky farm access track. You’ll find brambles along here, so great for blackberry picking in the late summer! At the bottom of the track, you will reach a road. Here, we turned left and walked along the road because the paths were extremely muddy. There is however the option of taking the footpath directly opposite which heads down in the direction of the river, where you need to turn left and join the Dales Way footpath.

11. We turned left and headed along the very quiet road until we reached the crossroads at Howgill Bridge. You will see a road sign up ahead of you pointing in the directions of Dent Station, Sedbergh etc. Directly opposite the end of the road you are walking on, is the public bridleway signposted Double Croft Lane.

12. Head down this as far as the houses. There is a path that turns left before you get to Double Croft House that heads through a little gate and then along the perimeter. You need to take this. The one that continues straight ahead is very often flooded.

13. Follow the footpath as it loosely follows the fence on your left. There are waymarkers along here to point you in the right direction. You will pass a small pond on your right here too. You will go through a gate over a footbridge and then along another path as it follows the stream on your left.

14. Head through a gate, then through another gate, crossing a track. There is a signpost at the gate, telling you where the footpath is. You will head through another field to another gate…. (gatey right?!) After this gate, there is a little footbridge to your left, cross this and turn right. Continue along the beck, this time with the water to your right and follow it all the way back into Dent.

15. You will meet the road at the bridge over the river. Here turn left, and walk back up into Dent! We recommend you explore as much as you like! In particular, look for the Vampire Stone… we’ll tell you more about that below!

Last walked February 2023