Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: North and East. Dennis Kelsall

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      Overlooking Sedbergh, Winder is the southernmost top of the Howgill Fells

      Bear left past the farmhouse and through the yard. In the field beyond, bear right across the hillside to a stile. Over a second stile, keep going, later passing the top end of a truncated wall to find a stile just above a white house. Walk down to emerge beside it onto Buckbank Lane.

      Turn right to Buckbank Farm and enter the yard. Go right between the barns and then left beside the silage store to the field. Follow the perimeter down and continue above the wooded ravine of the River Rawthey to meet the main road at Straight Bridge.

      The way continues beside the river through a gap stile opposite to the A684 at New Bridge. Over the Rawthey, turn through a kissing-gate and carry on downstream, emerging by another bridge at Millthrop. Cross back to find a gate, just beyond the drive to Millthrop Mill.

      Strike out past the mill to enter a small wood above the river. Watch for the waymarked path swinging right between sunken walls, at the end of which, walk forward and take the right-most of the forking paths to a gate at the edge of the trees. Go left and carry on beyond the corner of the wood and the ruin of an octagonal tower.

      Known as the Pepper Pot and dating from the end of the 19th century, the tower was a gazebo or summerhouse within the gardens of Akay House. The house was demolished just before the Second World War, but the tower, originally rising to two storeys, was left to crumble in its own good time. The folly became the scene of excitement when a cow wandered in, managing to reach the first floor, and an old photograph shows it gazing bemusedly from the window.

      The path falls from the field to rejoin the river, running past one of Sedbergh School’s rugby pitches to a kissing-gate. To carry on with Walk 2, keep ahead up to the path around Birks House to come out on Birks Lane.

      Otherwise, swing away from the river, heading upfield towards a barn. Emerging onto a track, follow it out to Busk Lane. Through a kissing-gate opposite, climb to another gate at the top of a rise and, crossing a path, continue beside a sports field. Swing right past the cricket pavilion to come out onto Finkle Street beside St Andrew’s churchyard.

      ST ANDREW’S CHURCH, SEDBERGH

      Low and wide, St Andrew’s is typical of many Dales churches and seems completely at one with the surrounding countryside. Its most notable feature is the stained glass filling the eastern window, installed at the end of the 19th century by one of the town’s great benefactors, Mrs Upton-Cottrell-Dormer of Ingmire Hall. In 1906, she presented the town with Queen’s Gardens to commemorate Victoria’s long reign, but the window here was given in memory of her husband and parents. Depicting Jesus calling his first disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew, to be ‘fishers of men’, it was designed by Victor Milner, considered to be one of the finest craftsmen of his day, and made by Watsons of Baker Street in London.

WALK 2

      The Rivers Rawthey and Lune from Sedbergh

      Nestling under the Howgill Fells, Sedbergh is a popular starting point for high-level walks onto the hills, but is equally well placed for many gentler rambles amongst the lower slopes. Downstream, the Dee and Rawthey combine to meet the River Lune, a corner criss-crossed by paths and quiet lanes that link the old mills and scattered valley farms that helped foster trade at the ancient market town. Amongst the sights are two impressive examples of Victorian engineering – viaducts that carried the former Ingleton railway above the rivers. The walk can be undertaken on its own, or treated as an extension to the previous ramble.