A bracing walk + sweeping views + a nice sit down = perfect day. Climb to the summit of Buckden Pike and you can now enjoy a new dry-stone seat and better pathways, thanks to National Trust rangers. Breath-taking views from the 702-meter summit stretch over Langstrothdale towards the Yorkshire Three Peaks.
There's a 6.5 mile loop walk. Part of the route takes in Buckden Rake, an old Roman road which once linked forts between Ilkley and Bainbridge, before starting the steeper ascent to the top. A short way from the summit is a poignant cross erected in memory of five Polish airmen who crashed their Wellington Bomber during a training mission in a severe snow storm in 1942.
Look out for the fox’s head at the base of the cross, a reference to the footprints of a fox that the lone survivor, Joseph Fusniak, followed down through the snow to the White Lion at Cray in his search for help.
On the descent back down to the village of Starbotton you join the old packhorse route called Walden Road just as the valley views start to open up and you see the Dales landscape with the lines of dry stone walls and barns before you.
Photo thanks to Terry Jackman