Walk description for Halton Gill to Foxup Loop

Directions to be used alongside a map.

1. Starting at the honesty box car park in Halton Gill (check the what 3 words location above for the precise spot), facing the hamlet buildings turn left. You can either head into the hamlet to try and figure out a few of the filming spots, or you can just head up the road towards the even smaller hamlet of Foxup. This is where the road ends, there is nothing beyond, so the road is VERY VERY quiet. But as always, just be wary there could be the odd car or two!

2. Once you have reached the bridge crossing the start of the River Skirfare at Foxup (it will be on your left, and the road crosses it towards the farmhouses of Foxup), you need to take the public footpath that runs along the right hand side of the water. It is signposted Cosh.

3. Follow this. It turns into a stony access track, and heads through a couple of open gateways, until you reach a small stone footbridge that crosses Cosh Beck on your left. (The water looked very inviting here, to dip some toes!) It is marked by a public footpath signpost. Cross the bridge over the beck and head through the gate into the field opposite.

4. Now this is where you have to be a bit creative, as because Littondale is SO secret, the footpaths are well waymarked, but not well walked. The field is BEAUTIFUL in the late spring and is packed with wildflowers, but will be grassy otherwise. The public right of way heads up the slope and diagonally right, until you meet a little gate and waymarker in the wall to your right. Don’t go through it, but turn left and head back across the field. There is another gate in the wall on the opposite side of the field. It is also waymarked. It might seem easier to head straight up towards this gate on the left, but we were following the tracker on our GPS and given the meadowlands of the Dales are protected, we stuck to the right of way!

5. Head through this gate, then straight across the next field. You’ll be met with another little gate in the wall and another waymarker marked public footpath. You will head directly through three fields until you will reach the last. At the time of walking there was renovation work going on to one of the (quite frankly stunning) properties in Foxup, so the set up of the access point is likely to be slightly different over time. However, the gate out of the field is located right between the house, and the line of conifer trees ahead. It is again waymarked, and clear, so it’s obvious you’re on the right track!

6. You will head out onto a stony access track, that curves around to the left past the houses in the hamlet of Foxup. You will then cross the bridge over Foxup Beck (regularly dry on account of the number of cave systems underneath the ground!) And head back towards the bridge you passed earlier. Again, don’t cross it, but turn right onto the footpath that runs directly alongside the river.

7. You will follow the river all the way back to Halton Gill bridge, at which point the path heads back up to the road. Turn left and head back into the hamlet where you began!

Last walked June 2022