Kettlewell to Starbotton over Top Mere

Great Whernside from Kettlewell

Eight miles and a full five hours for the biggest hill above Wharfedale, climbing beside Dowber Gill Beck past the old hostel at Hag Dyke and onto a gritstone summit ridge of peat hag and boulder that is genuinely wet, genuinely rough, and no place to be in low cloud without a compass. Park in the village car park in Kettlewell; the 72 bus from Skipton and Grassington comes in as far as here, but check the timetable because it is a handful of journeys a day. Sheep are on the fell year round and the tops carry ground-nesting birds from March to July, so the dog stays on the lead; the beck gives good water for the first two miles and nothing above it, and the descent by Top Mere Road is on grass and stone with gates rather than stiles, though there are two ladder stiles high on the ridge that a big dog cannot climb and will have to be carried over.