Leg 2Dufton to Alston

Start of Roof of England Walk Leg 2 – Dufton to Alston.

If you visit the green in the centre of Dufton notice the distinctive red fountain. It was gifted to the village by the London Lead Company in 1858. This Quaker-owned lead mining company made many improvements to Dufton, building houses for mining families and installing piped water.

Leg 2 of the Roof of England Walk route coincides with the Pennine Way National Trail. The trail starts in Edale, in the Peak District, and finishes 431km (268 miles) later at Kirk Yetholm, in the Scottish Borders. A quarter of the route is within the North Pennines National Landscape. The Pennine Way was Britain’s first National Trail and in 2025 the trail marked its 60th anniversary.

The conical hill off to the right of the route is Dufton Pike. Like the other ‘pikes’ along the Pennine escarpment it is made up of slates and volcanic rocks. Keep an eye out for pale, streaky rocks underfoot. These are the rocks which make up the pikes and are known as ash-flow tuff, they formed in explosive volcanic eruptions around 450 million years ago.

Notice that the route of Wainwright’s Pennine Journey route bears left through a wooden bridle gate here. In poor weather some walkers choose to follow this, re-joining the Pennine Way on the far side of Cross Fell, as an alternative route. Thereby avoiding some of the higher, exposed ground.

Hurning Lane is of medieval origin and is an ancient drove road. The hedgerow trees and hawthorn bushes flanking it are likely to date from the period of enclosure in the 16th or 17th centuries.

This stretch of wall contains blocks of orange rocks. This is Dufton Microgranite, which formed 400 million years ago from molten rock. It was injected into rocks that now form Dufton Pike, and solidified underground. After millions of years of erosion, it is now exposed. It contains crystals of quartz (pale grey and glassy), feldspar (pinky orange) and mica (silvery and flaky).

The smooth, sweeping slopes of Cosca Hill to your right are underlain by glacial sand and gravel. These were deposited in the last ice age by meltwater flowing through channels under the ice. When the ice melted, the sand and gravel were left as ridges and mounds.

Notice the clapper bridge over the Great Rundale Beck. Many clapper bridges are thought to be ancient. The slabs are made of limestone, which must have been brought here from the sequence of Carboniferous rocks higher up the escarpment.

Glance down the course of the Swindale Back and you will see Knock Pike, one of several conical hills along the Pennine Escarpment. It is made from ancient layers of volcanic ash, deposited around 450 million years ago on the bottom of a vast ocean which separated Scotland from England and Wales.

Here, limestone, shale and sandstone beds are exposed in the banks of the beck. Look for the way these different rock types influence the shape of the landscape. The more weather-resistant limestone and sandstone beds form flat-topped benches in the hillside, while the shale weathers easily for form the steep slopes between them.

Just after you cross the Swindale Beck you will enter one of the largest National Nature Reserves in England. Moor House-Upper Teesdale is famous for its unique Arctic-Alpine plants which have survived in this part of northern England since the last Ice Age. The reserve encompasses an almost complete range of upland habitats typical of the North Pennines – from hay meadows to summit heaths.

You can choose to descend carefully to the beck if you want to examine the rocks, as there are some good fossils in the limestone. When you are finished, return to the track, and follow the Pennine Way up the hill. The route is indicated by yellow arrows on stone markers.

Here the path passes some small sinkholes, also known in the North Pennines as ‘shake holes’. Limestone dissolves gradually in rainwater, forming joints in the rock which slowly widen into cave systems. The overlying soil and rock debris falls into these openings, forming a depression on the surface.

Look for the brown vertically-fractured rocks on the far side of Swindale Beck. These are exposures of the Whin Sill. The hot magma that formed the Whin Sill altered the surrounding rocks as it pushed its way between them. The baked rocks beneath the sill are visible in the streambed. Do not climb down into the stream here as the banks are steep and slippery.

The long, straight valley you are following is known as a hush. It was created partly by the controlled release of water on a slope to remove surface material in the search for mineral veins. The remains of a reservoir, dam and sluice gate that supplied the water are visible at the top of the hush. Look for the Scar Limestone and overlying sandstone in the sides of the hush.

You will pass through a row of sinkholes as you move up the hillside. These mark the top of the Four Fathom Limestone. The rich, green grassland on the limestone contrasts with the coarse grasses and rushes on the sandstone and shale, showing the influence of geology on vegetation.

As you cross the summit of Knock Fell you will pass through a large boulder field. The coarse sandstones here are highly abrasive and are ideal for making millstones to grind grain. Some blocks have ripple marks, showing that they were formed in shallow water or beaches. Many also contain fossilised tree roots, indicating that the sand was sometimes above water and covered in vegetation.

There is clear evidence of mining on the north side of the Heights, where circular ‘doughnuts’ of spoil from two mine shafts are visible. The pits are workings on a mineralised fault, and a white coating of the mineral baryte can be seen on some of the Great Limestone blocks in the spoil.

As you climb the bulk of Great Dun Fell you will cross Dun Fell Hush. This is one of the largest in the whole of the North Pennines. The excavation follows the course of Dun Fell Vein, which was worked for galena (lead ore) and limonite (iron ore). It has been estimated that 300,000 tons of material were excavated during the exploitation of the hush.

The Great Dun Fell ‘golf ball’ is a North Pennines landmark. The golf ball is a radar station, operated by the National Air Traffic Services. It is a crucial part of the air traffic control infrastructure in northern England. The tarmac service road is well-known in road cycling circles as a (virtually) traffic-free climb all the way from the Eden Valley to 848m.

The trail follows the crest of the North Pennine escarpment. The tops of the hills, e.g. Little Dun Fell, are formed from sediments laid down in the tropical seas and river deltas of the Carboniferous Period (360-300 million years ago). These rocks have eroded away to reveal the older rocks beneath – slates and volcanic rocks. Beyond the flat bottom of the Eden Valley lies over red sandstones.

Just to the east of Crowdundle Head is an area of boggy moorland on the eastern flanks of Cross Fell – known as Tees Head. This is the headwaters, aka the source, of the River Tees. The water flows through at least 10 streams before joining together to properly form the river, upstream from Cow Green Reservoir. You will encounter the Tees again on Leg 10 of the Roof of England Walk.

Cross Fell, at 893m (2,930 feet), is the highest mountain in the Pennines. It is the highest point on the Roof of England Walk route and is, in fact, the highest hill in England – outside of the Lake District. It is a bulky mountain with an extensive, boulder strewn, summit plateau. If conditions are cloudy then using a map and compass to help you navigate across it, is necessary.

As you approach the summit of Cross Fell you will notice that there is a white trig point and a large drystone wall-built shelter. The structure was restored by local craftsman, Laurie Lambeth, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pennine Way (in 2015). It is a cross-shaped structure, which gives protection from the wind – which can attack walkers from any direction.

A stone cairn marks the spot where Wainwright’s Pennine Journey route re-joins the Roof of England Walk/Pennine Way route – after having climbed up the Pennine escarpment from Kirkland, in the Eden Valley.

Greg’s Hut was originally a mine shop, which provided lodgings for miners working in the nearby Katelock Lead Mine in the 1800s. It is now maintained as a mountain shelter/refuge by the Mountain Bothies Association. The origin behind the name is that it was initially restored (in the early 1970s) in memory of John Gregory, who was killed in a climbing accident in the Alps in 1968.

The route cuts through a dispersed mining landscape around the Black Gut and Cash Well Spring area. The most obvious feature is the Cashwell Hush, an opencut and long hush on the Cashwell Vein. It was worked from before 1778 and some of the remains are thought to date from the 18th century. A small smelting mill was built near the level in c1800, and the mine was worked until c1921.

The skylark is one of our most celebrated birds – not least in Shelley’s 1820 poem, ‘To a Skylark’. The skylark will be an almost constant soundtrack for walkers tackling the Roof of England Walk in the summer months. It is renown for its display flight, vertically upwards, singing constantly. Despite apparent commonness, its population, in the UK, declined by 11% between 1995 and 2022.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, nonconformist religion flourished in the North Pennines and Garrigill was very much part of this trend. Just before you reach the road notice the Primitive Methodist chapel on the right hand side. It was built in 1825 and apparently rebuilt in 1856. The present chapel is dated 1885, and is a private house.

As you walk through Garrigill take some time to look at the buildings. Most date to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and are made from hard sandstone. Many originally had thatched roofs, although these have been entirely replaced by sandstone flags and slate. Also note the striking decorative banding that adorns the houses overlooking the green.

Just before you reach the green in Garrigill, notice St John’s Church on the right hand side of the route. Volunteers from Cumbria Wildlife Trust have surveyed the churchyard as part of their Wildlife in Sacred Places Project. Over 30 plants have been recorded and the grass is left to grow around the church which provides cover for small mammals, such as hedgehogs, weasels, and shrews.

As you emerge onto the road notice the former chapel on the other side. The Methodist chapel at Beldy was first established in 1790 and apparently rebuilt in 1814. The present chapel, which is a private house, was built in 1859.

Just beyond the farm buildings at Low Craig take a closer look at the drystone wall on the right hand side of the path. Notice that the stones are encrusted with an intricate mosaic of lichens – it is a fascinating micro-world of these intriguing associations between fungi and algae. These walls are made from limestone and so the lichens you will see are ones which thrive in alkaline conditions.

Notice the small, ruined building and the spoil heaps on your left. To the right of the building there is an old mine entrance – an old adit, with a hint of a stone arch. Peaceful, old mine sites like this are a feature of the landscape here. Imagine the height of the lead mining industry in the 18th and early 19th centuries – it would have been a world away from the tranquillity of today.

One hundred metres beyond the entrance to Alston cemetery you will see the Youth Hostel on the right hand side of the trail. Leg 2 finishes here.

Finish of Roof of England Walk Leg 2 – Dufton to Alston.