Читать книгу Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. 50 classic hillwalking routes онлайн

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From this enigmatic place it is only a short walk along the access lane, and back to the church at Kirkland.

The stone shelter on Cross Fell, looking north to Scotland

WALK FOUR

High Cup Nick and Backstone Edge

Start pointDufton NY689249Distance15.5km (9½ miles)Height gain592m (1940ft)GradestrenuousTime5–6hrsMapsOrdnance Survey OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley)Getting thereDufton village car park (toilets)After-walk refreshmentStag Inn in Dufton; pubs, cafés, snack bars and restaurants in Appleby

High Cup Nick will be no stranger to those who have walked the Pennine Way, and its dramatic and sudden appearance for those travelling south to north on that route is a memorable moment. For walkers ascending from Dufton, however, this remarkable geological phenomenon eases into view gradually, but reserves its full impact for those who continue to its head, where sometimes a river cascades down the shattered rocks of the Whin Sill.

The Route

Unlike many mountain ranges, the Pennines, being gentle, moulded moorland hills, offer few dramatic, sharp-edged profiles to catch the eye and lodge in the mind. One of the few exceptions to this is the impressive sculpted escarpment of High Cup Nick, formed by forces cold, wet and windy, where outcrops of igneous Whin Sill dolerite have intruded into the thick layers of mountain limestone and gritstone.