Countrystride #92: DENTDALE and THE DALES HIGH WAY

...in which stride out from Chapel-le-Dale in the Yorkshire Dales to nine-miles-distant Dent on the Dales High Way long distance footpath in the company of the trail's co-creator – and local lass – Chris Grogan. Leaving the diminutive 'chapel in t' dale' with its memorial to navvies killed building the Carlisle–Settle line, we rise into farm country and learn about Chris's childhood as a farm girl in Upper Dentdale. Encountering a group of firemen undertaking the Three Peaks Challenge, we talk place names, and the meanings of Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent and Boot of the Wold. On the age-old Craven Way that runs across the shoulder of Whernside we discuss the joys of long-distance walking - 'mindfulness before the term was invented'. Finally, we take a trip down memory lane as Chris recalls haymaking in the era of the fell pony, the Whernside gather... and truant officers being outfoxed by local mums.

• You can find out more about the Dales High Way at https://www.daleshighway.co.uk

• You can find Chris and Tony on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/daleshighway/

The magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct.

Our guest for the day: Dales High Way co-creator Chris Grogan.

Lovely St Leonard's Church.

Distant Ribblehead across the meadows.

Wet and wintry.

The entrance./exit to Bleamoor Tunnel.

Ingleborough from above the Blea Moor signal box.

Chris above her old hill farm home at Arten Gill.

Two of the Three Peaks from the historic Craven Way.

The fabulously named Boot of the Wold.

Down the outgoing into Dentdale.

Dave and Chris.