The Dales Way - Dent to Thwaite Farm, Howgill (10 miles)

Leaving The Sun in Dent after breakfast, collecting packed lunches and settling the bill, we found the weather sunny and the warmest yet. We called in at the village shop first to get a few snacks and some orange squash as we had run out of the squash we had brought with us.

Dent Village

Following the route we had taken the evening before into Dent, we returned to the route of the Dales Way at the road bridge crossing the River Dee. We saw the first small plaque attached to the gatepost, part of the "Dent Network of Gates" which is an art project involving children's designs cast in gunmetal and attached to local stiles, gate and bridges.
The path followed a narrow strip next to the river with a single wire fence separating it from the hay meadow. It joined the road for a very short length then rejoined the riverside.

 Near Dent Village

Further on we saw the Dutch couple from yesterday going in the same direction as us and following the path as it veered off from the river back to the road. We passed them as they were having a rest at the side of the road and continued onwards for another mile before following a track back towards a ford crossing the river.
The ford was fairly deep and we could see a footbridge nearby and a worn bit on the riverbank where others had clambered up and through a gap in the hedge to a path leading to the bridge. Obviously we had missed the other end of the path by the ford.
Anyway, we crossed the footbridge and saw a man and a lad checking their Dales Way guidebook before moving on. Karen and I sat on the footbridge steps for a few minutes to have a drink and saw the Dutch couple at the ford also looking for the way to the footbridge.
Continuing onwards, we followed an enclosed footpath and crossed the main road to the continuing path on the other side by an ornate gate into a large garden belonging to Gate Manor, then followed the path as it followed the Manor's garden wall and steadily gained height with views down the dale back towards Dent.
The path now continued across pastureland eventually reaching a rough track leading to the tiny village of Millthrop. Taking a road to the left we reached the main road again and a bridge crossing the River Rawthey. From here the Dales Way takes a footpath not far from the bridge. We were only 3/4 of a mile form the town of Sedbergh so we decided to continue along the road and find a tea shop. Despite it being midday, we weren't very hungry so just had a fruit scone and raspberry jam each.

 Millthrop Village

As it was so warm, we also got an ice cream from a nearby news agents and after a quick trip to an ATM, followed the main street for a few yards then on a Public Right of Way passing Sedbergh School and its cricket ground and other sports ground leading us back to the Dales Way at Birks.
This meant missing about half a mile of the official route, but our route was about twice that and also meant having the delights of Sedbergh which we would have otherwise missed out on!

 Sedbergh

 Sedbergh

From Birks we followed a minor road for a quarter of a mile then back on a footpath next to the river. At an old mill building (still in use for some other business), we passed a footbridge leading to Catholes and stayed on the same side of the river following an enclosed path from the mill building's car park.
After a short distance we were in open field again and stopped for a few minutes beneath an old viaduct belonging to a disused railway which we had just crossed. The central portion of the viaduct is made from wrought iron and has several arches in a complicated arrangement as they are side-by-side but the stone parapets which they bridge do not have parallel faces and are at an angle to each other. Quite amazing really.
Again we ended up on a main road for half a mile then back into pasture and through the hamlet of High Oaks. After following a track we reached a junction of footpaths with one leading straight on toward Killington New Bridge and the other to the right to Lincoln's Inn Bridge, which was our way.
We stopped here in a large field next to a hedgerow and took our boots of f to let our feet cool down a bit. Soon Karen spotted a fox coming through a wire fence from the field next door. The fox spotted us, about 30 yards away, and while keeping an eye on us, trotted past only to disappear behind a clump of long grass and not to appear again. Presumably it had gone down a hole.
With our rest over, we replaced our boots and continued on our way. We reached Lincoln's Inn Bridge which is a narrow road bridge which spans the River Lune and which was unfortunately slightly damaged at one end due to a vehicle accident.

The path rose to cross the road crossing the bridge and almost on the opposite side we continued on a track leading to the footpath now beside the River Lune.
Shortly after this we came upon the impressive Lune Viaduct constructed out of red sandstone with a metal section spanning two massive central piers. This viaduct was for the same disused railway (the Ingleton to Tebay line) as the viaduct we had seen earlier. We passed underneath one of the huge arches and then followed a path gradually rising upwards on steeper ground to the right.
This brought us to a gate and a stile and a path leading to Bramaskaw Farm. As we approached the farm, a cockerel came running down the field past us then mounted a nearby hen and started mating!

From here the route wasn't obvious but the farmer had painted large "FP" signs here and there leading past a small stone-built barn with short adjoining drystone walls until we arrived at a gated track.
The track led us to Hole House Farm and then to a large field with a bend of the River Lune flowing past. The problem as that our accommodation for the night, Thwaite Farm, was some distance away above the sloping ground with no path leading to it from this direction. Also there were a number of men working on power lines crossing the field below the farm.
We found our way through a gate into the farmyard and found the owner, Mrs. Parker. As the adjoining holiday cottage was unoccupied she said we could stay there for B&B and showed us in. It's a very lovely two bedroom cottage recently refurbished with amazing views. At first the power was off, due to the work we had seen the men carrying out on the power lines but it was due to be back on at 17:30 and it was now 16:30 so that was no problem.

As we still had our packed lunches, plus a couple of sausage rolls we also bought in Sedbergh, we had these for an evening meal. Otherwise we had planned to ask Mrs. Parker for a lift into Sedbergh for a pub meal, which she would have been happy to do.