(S/E) From the front door of the Tan Hill Inn, turn right. At the road junction, turn left (signposted to Keld and Thwaite). Follow the road for just under 300 metres, then turn right onto a signposted footpath by a marker stone.
The path, boggy in places, bears left down into the valley, with a shallow gully to the left.
At the bottom of the slope, just before the stream, turn left and walk parallel to the stream past a ruined sheepfold on the opposite bank.
(1) At the second sheep-fold, cross the stream by the second bridge. Follow a grassy path up the opposite side of the valley, to the left of the shaly valley of Thomas Gill, heading towards a waymark post visible at the top of the slope.
(2) The gill deepens beyond a circular sheepfold in the bottom of the valley on your right; as you approach the waymark, a hidden waterfall is revealed by taking a few steps off the path to peek down into the valley.
At the waymark post, turn left (South-West), away from the stream, and follow an obvious path straight up a broad, grassy ridge. After a fairly level stage, the path follows a low, bouldery bank to a stile over a fence with a footpath sign.
Beyond, it passes to the left of a small ruin and starts to descend (South-West) towards Ravenseat, passing another wooden sign. You needed to access the fenced area via a large gate some 50m to the right of where the path/track log shows it to be. Once inside the newly fenced area follow the fence down to the left to the farm.
A stile gives access to a track that heads downhill towards a larger stream and ford.
(3) Just before reaching the stream, turn left through a gate and cross the field above the stream on your right. Pass to the left of a large stone barn and walk in front of a house on the left. A brief detour to the right to view the packhorse bridge and ford is recommended.
To continue, go through the gate beyond the house, by a footpath sign to Keld. You are now following the route of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk.
(4) Cross a couple of boggy fields, passing a small waterfall on your left and a larger one in Whitsundale Beck (on your right) below a barn.
The path then climbs to a barn and disused farmhouse and then contours past another barn, before running along the edge of the Whitsundale Beck gorge above a couple of waterfalls.
(5) After a moorland interlude, you reach the ruined farmstead of High Smithy Holme, and beyond a gate another, occupied, farmhouse.
The track beyond descends towards a bridge over the River Swale; partway down, beneath some trees, leave the track for a path along a wall on the left, staying high above the valley.
This path leads along the bottom of a series of fields above Cotterby Scar, with intermittent trees on your right, crossing occasional boardwalks and footbridges, and latterly with views down to Wain Wath Falls on the Swale.
(6) Eventually the path drops down onto a metalled lane. Turn right and walk down the road, round a steep hairpin bend, and cross the bridge over the Swale.
Turn left at a T-junction, passing a bunk-barn on your left and climb to pass a house on the left.
(7) Continue to Keld and turn left just before the Methodist Chapel, down a walled lane signposted “Keld only”. Walk down into the village, and turn left past the public conveniences, Countryside and Heritage Centre and United Reformed Church.
At the bottom of the village, turn right onto a track past an information board on the right and a small stone barn on the left. Beyond another barn on the right, turn left and walk down a steep wooded path to the river. You are now on the Pennine Way.
(8) Cross the Swale on a footbridge and climb the hill opposite, to East Gill Force, on your right. Turn left and follow the track up to East Stonesdale Farm. Walk between farmhouse and barn and then take the grassy track straight ahead that leads uphill.
Beyond a gate the track climbs between walls to an isolated stone barn.
(9) After the barn, bear left along the wall, following a Pennine Way signpost, and then climb across the moor along the obvious path. After a stream and gate the path meets the drive from Frith Lodge, which it follows to a barn.
Leave the track here and continue along the valley side to a gate in a wall and thence to another couple of barns. After another gate, continue along the Pennine Way across open moorland.
(10) The path joins a miners’ track briefly above Stonesdale Bridge, then reverts to a moor-land path as it descends to the footbridge over Lads Gill (look up-stream for glimpses of a waterfall beyond the small stone building).
The last significant climb of the walk follows until the Pennine Way levels off beyond a signpost. The path passes peat hags on the right until the Tan Hill Inn comes into view. Bear left at a waymark and then, at a Pennine Way fingerpost, join a track coming from the right. Follow as it curves to the right and back to the Tan Hill Inn. (S/E)
