Walk facts

  • Distance: 50 miles
  • Difficulty: Non-technical walk, but challenging due to length and time constraint
  • Start & finish: Kirkstone Pass Inn & Tan Hill Inn (or vice versa)
  • Route: Kirkstone Pass Inn > High Street > Howgills > Nine Standards Rigg > Cross Keys Temperance Inn > Moorcock Inn > Tan Hill Inn
  • OS maps required: Explorer Series 1:25,000 sheets OL7 and OL19.

In your route pack

Written description of the route, including grid references, stages, distances for each stage, landmarks, optional deviations, interesting background facts
Photos of landmarks along the way to help guide you
At-a-glance linear route maps for various stages, to use in conjunction with your OS maps

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Download your PDF route pack for this walk for just £2.

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About the Highest Inns Walk

Kirkstone Pass Inn (300x225) (2)This a challenge walk and the challenge is:
After a drink at Kirkstone Pass Inn can you get to Tan Hill Inn for ‘last orders’ on the next day?

The Highest Inns Challenge Walk starts from the Kirkstone Pass Inn, famously the highest inn in the Lakes and the fourth highest in Britain. The route follows the watershed for a while, taking in High Street and continuing through the Howgills, over The Calf and finally over Nine Standards Rigg.

It takes in views of three famous waterfalls: Black Spout, Cautley Spout and Hell Gill, and on the way you can visit two other famous Inns: the Cross Keys Temperance Inn at the base of Cautley Spout and the Moorcock Inn near Garsdale Head. After 50 miles it finishes at the highest inn in Great Britain, the Tan Hill Inn.

Looking down over Cautley Spout to the Cross keys Inn (300x267)When this Classic Challenge Walk is completed in less than 24 hours, it rivals and is comparable to the famous 42-mile Lyke Wake Walk, which crosses the North Yorkshire Moors from Osmotherly to Ravenscar. However, many walkers will prefer to take a long weekend enjoying the highest inns and break the journey along the way.

Remember to plan your logistics and return transport, and book your accommodation well in advance. The route can, of course, be completed in either direction – the choice is yours. You will need OS Explorer maps OL7 and OL19 1:25,000 scale.

Cheers!

Jon Ginesi

Make it a double

Are you up for the ‘100 mile double’? If you want some extra challenge, cross the Highest Inns Walk both ways, as many do on the Lyke Wake Walk.

Done the walk?

Get the certificate!

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