Longsleddale

One road into an unspoiled valley

The road into Longsleddale is single-track and it does not come out the other side. It leaves the A6 at Garnett Bridge, four miles north of Kendal, and runs eight miles up a narrow valley before giving up at the open fell. There is no through route. You arrive here on purpose or not at all.

There is no railway and no bus either. The single-track road is the only way in, and the same road is the only way out.

The River Sprint runs the full length of the dale, through hay meadows and the yards of traditional farms. This is a narrow, unspoiled valley in the eastern Lake District, a working hill-farming community, and one of the least-visited valleys in the national park — a fact the single-track road does a good deal to protect.

Bring what you need, then walk

There is no pub. There are no shops. The nearest of either is at Staveley or Kendal, or Shap over the tops, which tells you what kind of place you have come to. There is nowhere to pop out to. Bring what you need.

What Longsleddale has instead is walking. The valley floor itself is eight quiet miles, following the Sprint through the meadows and past the farms, with the fell closing in as you go.

The old route over the fells

At the head of the dale, Gatescarth Pass carries the old packhorse route over into Mardale and Haweswater — a classic high crossing, and one people used to make with laden ponies rather than for the view.

Above the valley, Harker Fell and Sleddale Fell open out into moorland, with a lot of country visible from the top and no great crowd to share it with.

Mills, wool and slate

The industry here was always small and always alongside the farming. Sprint Mill was the largest on the river, working as both a corn mill and a woollen mill, with fulling mills documented on the site from 1627. Woollen textile production was, for a time, a significant industry in the valley.

Wren Gill slate quarry was worked from 1728 until around 1847, then reopened late in the nineteenth century, and was still being cut during the Second World War. It was one of several small industries that supplemented the hill farming here rather than replacing it.

The church at the valley's centre

St Mary's stands near the centre of the valley. A chapel of ease was recorded on the site in 1571, made parochial in 1712, and the present church built in 1863 and renovated in 1903. It is the focal point of this remote and scattered farming community, and it is open every day.

The walks begin from the car park opposite the church door. You cannot really get lost — there is only the one way up, and the same way back.