A delightful horseshoe of the fells

Summary

Dodd Fell & Drumaldrace are part of the Dales 30. The route starts from the town of Gayle, following a lovely horseshoe route. Fells of Sleddale valley surround it to the south of Hawes in Wensleydale. Although the path throughout is easy to follow, ascending and descending from Dodd Fell can be difficult as there isn’t a visible way down. Nevertheless, the entire route has fantastic views, and if you are lucky enough, you will not see a single person.

The Hike

We began from the Village of Gayle. The route followed along the pennine way, crossing over a couple of farmland fields before gradually rising upwards onto Gaudy lane. Whilst we continued, the path rose gradually. It felt harder than expected, but the views of Hawes behind were uplifting. A steeper section brought us onto a thinner path past some barns to enter access land. Taking the left-hand option, the path led us to the Cam High Road. A public byway, the Cam High Road is an old Roman road that ran from the fort at Bainbridge over to Ribblehead and beyond. However, as we continued on the road, we were both confused how we would get to the summit of Dodd fell. There didn’t seem to be a visible path.

I looked up and thought, “We need to head upwards at some point?”. This was when we started climbing off the route. Uneven, steep terrain made it extremely tiring. It zapped the energy out of our legs. Eventually, Dodd Fell came into view. It looked remote and untouched, with dark clouds looming over. I looked around and still couldn’t see a path. This was proving more difficult than we had expected. We were alone and all we could see, far away in the distance, was a faint path carved into the hillside. I hate walking on terrain like this. It makes the hike incredibly difficult.

We began to slowly descend, eventually arriving on the path we had seen in the distance. The slant of the path along the hillside proved extremely difficult to walk on. My hips and feet were starting to hurt from constantly having to learn sidewards into the hillside. Meanwhile, a little further on, we decided to stop for some lunch. Gazing out over the river-filled valley and wind-swept hills. A rewarding view.

Afterward, we continued towards Gayle Lane. This brought us to the summit of Fleet Moss and up towards Drumaldrace. This was the easier part of the hike but still proved to be difficult in places after the summit. Simply because I went off the beaten track, yet again. We had to walk over extremely lumpy and uneven moorland, away from the path that was intended for us to follow. Not ideal with our tired weary bodies.

Eventually, we made it onto the correct path. This was fantastic and, by far, the best part of the hike. The views of the Dales unraveled themselves as we descended downwards. The ground was soft to walk on. Warm flushes of sunshine filled the entire valley, and views of the stunning landscape began to captivate us from all angles, whilst we slowly meandered our way back towards the village of Gayle. It was a great end to the hike.

A challenging but rewarding hike

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