Maize Beck Scar, North Pennines

Dufton is the perfect village for starting a walk from.  Good facilities, including a great pub in the pretty village centre, make for a relaxing start across the pastures in the valley.

Most walkers will take the high route to the tip of High Cup Nick, missing out on a dramatic entrance from below.  The path along High Cup Gill gradually leads you into the glacial hillside, the crags towering above.  Then follows a scramble across the boulder field and up to the lip of the Nick and a surprise, for those above, exit onto the High Cup Rise.

But more is on offer.  Carry on north and you reach the amazing Maize Beck Scar with it rumbling waters and deep pools perfect for a cooling dip if doing this in warmer weather.  The route follows the waters west to Great Rundle Tarn, an isolated and often missing body of water.  It then takes you through the old workings where lead and barite were mined.  The old bridleway delivers you back into the centre of Dufton and the door of the Stag Inn for a pint and some fine Cumbrian food!