Start/Finish: Grinton    Distance: 10 miles    Time: 3 – 4 Hours

On a fantastically sunny day in May we chose to hike up Fremington Edge followed by Calver Hill. We started this circular walk from the Bridge Inn in Grinton.

The Route:

Walk left over the bridge and you shall pass by the Dales Bike Centre as you enter Fremington (which incidentally is a great place to hire bikes and have a snack at their café!). You’ll reach a bend in the road by AD Coach House Cottage which meets the road leading towards Marrick.

Walk about 15 yards up the road towards Marrick and you shall see a footpath between the buildings. Head up the footpath and follow this to the top. At the top the footpath it veers to the left and you shall reach a narrow country road.

This narrow, stony road is the start of the long climb to the top of Fremington Edge.

Keep following the road and you shall pass by the iconic whitewashed farmhouse which can be seen from the village of Reeth. Continue up the road, you shall pass through a gate.

After the gate the road turns a little rockier but you shall shortly reach the grassy summit.

Across the top of Fremington Edge there is a dry stone wall that stretches across the entire length of the hill. The dry stone wall is in exceptionally good condition for the weather that it has to withstand. We walked across the summit and across the style At the top it was extremely windy despite the sunshine.

Shortly after the style you shall notice a well-trodden path that is the beginning of the zigzag decent with a view of Reeth in the distance.

When you reach the bottom of Fremington edge there is a style to cross that takes you to a short path in between two dry stone walls, which then opens out into fields.

Turn right at the end of the two stone walls with the barn on your left. Follow the path and it shall take you to a bridge that will take you over Arkle Beck into a pretty wooded area.

This section of the walk is only short exiting via a gate into a field. Continue through the field and through another the gate and you shall appear on Arkengarthdale Road leading from Reeth to Langthwaite and beyond.

Turn right in the direction of Langthwaite. This road has a slight incline. After around half a mile from the moment of joining Arkengarthdale Road you shall notice that there bend. At this point we crossed the road and started walking through the moorland towards Calver Hill.

The initial walk across the moorland is a little boggy which makes it hard work – but not impossible! It started to get a little nippy as we got closer to the steep incline to the top of Claver Hill as the position of the sun was behind the hill. Once commencing the incline the terrain turns rockier with some scree. The climb up is steep but thankfully quite short in comparison to its neighbour Fremington Edge.

There are some great views across both Swaledale to the right and Arkengarthdale to your left. In the far distance you can see Reeth and Healaugh just below.

We climbed down from the summit across some of the heather. The grass path leads to a narrow footpath that brings you out at the top end of Reeth. We walked into Reeth, stopping off at The Buck Inn for a pizza and a quick pint and then headed down for some fine ale at the Bridge Inn.