Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership

The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme ran from March 2019 to February 2024. Its vision was to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales, enabling more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from this inspirational landscape.

Download the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme Summary Report for an overview of the Scheme's successes.

Welcome …

… to the Westmorland Dales website.

The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme aimed to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales, enabling more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from this inspirational landscape. Specifically, its objectives were to:

Reveal the area’s hidden heritage.
Conserve what makes the area special.
Engage people in enjoying and benefitting from their heritage.
Sustain the benefits of the scheme in the long-term.

This was achieved through a programme of projects developed and delivered through the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership, led by Friends of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and mainly funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It ran over a five-year period from March 2019 to February 2024.

Here you can discover what makes the area so special, find out about the scheme’s projects, and view and download resources produced.

The Westmorland Dales

The Westmorland Dales is a beautiful area of Cumbria lying north of the Howgill Fells and within the north-west corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It stretches from Tebay in the south-west to Kirkby Stephen in the east and to Maulds Meaburn in the north-west. At its heart are the limestone fells above Orton and Asby, rich in natural and cultural heritage, and with magnificent views to the Pennines, the Howgills and the Lakeland fells. It drains into the Lune river catchment to the south and the Eden river catchment to the north. Relatively overlooked compared with its better-known neighbours, our projects have aimed to reveal its heritage for more to enjoy without detracting from its unique qualities. (Click on map for larger image)

Contact information

Friends of the Lake District

Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 7SS

Main Telephone: 01539 720788

Email: [email protected]

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Yoredale, Bainbridge, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 3EL

Main Telephone: 01969 652300

Email: [email protected]

3.3 Discovering the Westmorland Dales

The project saw extensive work on the rights of way network, bringing it up to a similar standard to the rest of the national park. It also linked it to the Pennine Bridleway and extended the Yorkshire Dales Cycleway. The improved network has been promoted through a series of walking, cycling, and horse-riding leaflets.

Project lead: Rebecca Greenfield, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

The main aim of this project was to bring the public rights of way network up to a similar standard as the rest of the National Park, improving access for all in the process, and to promote the improved access through a series of leaflets aimed at walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.

Extensive improvement works were undertaken, including 55 barrier reductions, many of them replacing stiles with gates; 33 new signposts; 14 repaired or new bridges; and 4.6km of surface improvements. The latter included resurfacing of key lengths of Ravenstonedale Moor bridleway and the construction of a new path along the foot of Tebay Fell, providing a safe alternative to walking on the busy A685.

In total, 18 new leaflets were produced, all downloadable below: 11 focus on walking, four on cycling and three on horse-riding, using local villages and towns and Kirkby Stephen station as their starting points.

Cycling Leaflets

Kirkby Stephen - mountain bike ride Asby	Orton - mountain bike ride long
Kirkby Stephen- mountain bike ride Mallerstang	Orton - mountain bike ride short

Walking Leaflets

Crosby Ravensworth - walk leaflet	Great Asby North - walk leaflet	Great Asby South - walk leaflet
Kirkby Stephen station - walk leaflet	Lyvennet Valley - walk leaflet	Newbiggin-on-Lune Smardale - walk leaflet
Orton - walk leaflet	Ravenstonedale - Ash Fell walk leaflet	Ravenstonedale - meadows walk leaflet
Ravenstonedale - stile free walk leaflet	Tebay - walk leaflet

Horse riding leaflets

Crosby Garrett and Great Asby - horse ride

Great Asby - horse ride

Smardale and Crosby Garrett - horse ride

Two other projects helped to link the Westmorland Dales with the wider Yorkshire Dales National Park and surrounding areas:

A new 10.5km bridleway link was developed, including new gates, bridges, signs, and surface improvements between the end of the Pennine Bridleway at Stennerskeugh and the Eden Valley loops at Wath.
The extension of the Yorkshire Dales Cycleway from Dent to Reeth, including a 29km signed section through the Westmorland Dales from south of Tebay to Kirkby Stephen.

Further information is available here:

The Extended Yorkshire Dales Cycleway website
The Yorkshire Dales National Park website

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Our Fundraising Promise

3.1 Love Your Landscape

Grants were distributed to a wide range of local groups in the area to implement their own projects which met our objectives including tree planting, the restoration of heritage features, interpretation and engagement projects.
3.2 Skills for the Future – Apprentices

Eight countryside worker apprentices were employed by YDNPA, and one cultural heritage trainee, who developed their skills and experience in undertaking a variety of projects with a wide range of partners, acting as great ambassadors for the Scheme and the organisation. Most have gone on to work in the conservation sector.
3.4 Distinctly Westmorland Dales

This project worked with local tourism businesses to promote the area’s heritage and to use that heritage to maximise the benefits to their businesses, mindful of the area’s distinct qualities, its Sense of Place, and sensitivities about attracting too many visitors.
3.5 Interpreting the Westmorland Dales

Interpretation was a key theme underpinning all our projects with new welcome panels and interpretive boards sensitively installed, leaflets and booklets produced, sounds recorded and stories retold, many of them engaging local people in the process and helping them and visitors enjoy and understand the area’s rich heritage.
3.6 Celebrating and Engaging

Engaging people was at the heart of the Scheme and most of its projects to celebrate the area’s heritage. A programme of general public engagement events was held from online webinars to annual landscape forums; volunteers were recruited, trained and engaged; projects delivered with local primary and secondary schools, and other training events held; art, including sound sculptures, land art, theatre and music was imaginatively used to engage a board cross-section of people.

Volunteering

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We are an independent charity and the only membership organisation dedicated to protecting and enhancing Cumbria's landscapes for future generations
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