GEORGE WILKINSON takes the high road from Ramsgill

We start at the pretty village of Ramsgill. The opening mile becomes a steepish 500-foot climb. Gouthwaite Reservoir, long and finger-like, fills the valley to the south, bright in the sunshine, a vortex of gulls spiralled up from its glistening surface, a few dark clouds slid across the sky.

A birdwatcher with a telescope was coming down. He had seen four or five buzzards and when I expressed surprise, he said: "Sometimes there'll be a dozen this time of year, but it hasn't been hard enough for Golden Eagles."

Nowadays the track is 'unsuitable for motors' but pre-eighteenth century it was the main route out of Upper Nidderdale.

As you climb, pasture gives way to a rougher terrain featuring a sheen of winter-bleached grasses, darker swathes of rushes, sandstone boulders and heather horizons.

A stoat jogged along a wall and a buzzard lazily swept high over the valley. Lovely country. Steep climbing finished for the day, we angle north on a contouring half-mile to reach the start of our circular, or rather triangular, route.

From here you can really see what it's all about. One double-walled track heads off north-west while another, wall-less, gently climbs a little east of north.

In the middle of our triangle is the day's main and enduring landmark, the Sypeland Crags, a sandstone outcrop, nearly always in view and nicely changing in shape as we encircle. I decided to go anti-clockwise, for the weather, for the sun, and paralleled Lul Beck towards its source and soon entered the heather zone.

At the next corner, almost as high as we go, are surprising distant views to the east to the limestone cliffs at Sutton Bank 25 miles away.

The next stage was flat, a contour which was into the wind then into thin, horizontal rain for a while.

So I sheltered near a shooter's hut about halfway along, had a sandwich, pulled on my overtrousers, and enjoyed the pleasurable sight of Jenny Twig and her daughter Tib, two sweet, wind-shaped stones standing shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, half a mile to the south. The view down into Nidderdale was temporarily diminished by the weather.

The third and last side of our triangle is nearly all downhill. You get sheltering walls again. Heather gives way to dead bracken and pheasants replace grouse. The crags take on mushroom shapes, the track is wet in places, with streams that seem permanent to judge by their two species of pondweed.

On the repeated part of the walk, a rapid gravity assisted descent, you have a long look at the far flank of Nidderdale, divided by half a dozen wedges of wooded ravine. Gouthwaite Reservoir was steel grey in the evening light and touches of snow illuminated faraway hills.

DIRECTIONS

From Ramsgill, road north out of village, bridge and right along dead-end lane. Tarmac changes to stone track, uphill. Three successive fieldgates

Gateway, 50 yards and left at junction, pass wood.

Y-junction and right-hand fieldgate (i.e.: straight ahead), fieldgate.

Left at tracks T-junction (stone post), fieldgate.

At right-hand bend take grassy track on left by wall on right, downhill, fieldgate to walled track which leads back to Direction No.3. Retrace route back to start.

FACT FILE

Distance: Eight miles.

Time: Three and a half hours.

Start: Near Ramsgill.

Right of Way: The complete route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: January 21, 1999.

Road Route: Ramsgill is five miles north-west of Pateley Bridge on the road to Lofthouse and Middlesmoor.

Car Parking: Very limited parking at Ramsgill. More on Bouthwaite road (dead-end, right immediately after bridge out of Ramsgill and signed 'unsuitable for motor vehicles') as far as Methodist Church (tuck well in on verge). Lots of verge by bend half a mile beyond Ramsgill near track signed to Longside Farm.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Inn at Ramsgill.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Harrogate TIC 01423 537300

Map: The OS map is Explorer 26, Nidderdale.

Terrain: All on good tracks. Ideal for winter.

Footwear: Walking boots, stout shoes, or if dry, trainers.

Points of interest: Old tracks, Gouthwaite Reservoir, views, crags, stones, and birds.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Dogs: Suitable for dogs but keep on leads or under close control.

Weather Forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418

PICTURE:Chopper the world: Helicopters disturb the tranquillity of around Gouthwaite Reservoir with Upper Nidderdale in the distance

There is no map available for this walk