This gem of a walk starts from the centre of the village, there is ample parking around the green. While you're putting on your boots and togging up ready for the off, take in the surroundings for Reeth has a good feel and of course you will see the white house high on the fell side to the North-east which you pass on you route. Take the road toward Grinton, cross the river bridge and immediately on your left after the garage is a gated stile, a path heads off through the meadows along Arkle Beck, disregard this and cross the fields to your right through several stiles and a gate until you enter the village of High Fremington. At this point you pick up a narrow metalled road that is the access to White House and therefore very quiet.

Your route climbs steadily and fairly steeply through deciduous woodland and hedgerows. You will note the urban architecture in the form of benches dedicated to loved ones, use the excuse of reading a dedication to take a rest and catch your breath. Through a steel gate and past the last bench, the road morphs into a stone track. As you pass the White House below you, and climb toward the summit edge you will  see the quarries on the hillside above. Owned by the Boulder Flint Co. 'Chert' a hard blue flint used for paving was quarried here until 1950. On reaching the 'edge top' a dry stone wall marks the boundary of the National Park, pass through a gate and follow the path alongside this wall in a north-westerly direction for a little over half a mile when a kissing gate in the wall is reached. Take the opportunity to make a short detour to the 'edge' for extensive views of Arkengarthdale and Reeth. Retrace your steps to the gate and continue on your route, returning to this peaty heather covered path where you are sure to encounter Grouse amongst the heath and Skylarks in the moorland grasses, for this wall is also the boundary of two entirely different habitats.

Before you join the Hurst bridleway a further half mile along your route make for the large stone cairn away from the path to your left. From this point return to the bridleway and descend over the grassy slopes manicured by hungry Swaledales (sheep) and steeply through the disused Fell End lead mine workings, picking out the familiar blue painted way markers to Storthwaite Hall Farm and beyond to join the path alongside Arkle Beck. At this point you can choose to double back along the Beck footpath to Reeth or continue to Langthwaite less than a mile further on, to check if the Red Lion Inn is open and have a look at the stone bridge over the beck, used in the opening scenes of All Creatures Great and Small.

From the bridge retrace your steps along the bridleway track at the side of the beck and back through the copse to a point where it splits away from the track and under a stone arched tunnel with a gated stile at the far end. The path closely follows the course of the beck and it is here where there are regular sightings of Kingfishers. Cross the small metal footbridge and continue along the footpath in preference to the bridleway that briefly touches the path and then traverses to higher ground away from the beck. When in flood the beck has carved out several courses and the path crosses these and the tangles of  exposed tree roots to an area of mature Scots Pines. This beautiful area is full of spring flowers and oddly, cultivated daffodils that must have been washed downstream from the gardens of Langthwaite. The path continues across an open area of grazing with collapsed stone walls to the left of Castle Farm House. Pick your way carefully across the fields looking out for the finger sign posts and past a typical Dales long house and barn. Now in a state of dereliction but not beyond rescue, I suspect many passing walkers, myself included have fantasized about  the possibility of turning it into an ideological retreat, for there are no services for miles and the Mondeo would struggle up the track. From here the farmer is keen to see that you keep to the path, so there are many yellow way marks that guide you across his walled meadows, full of flowers in spring and his sheep and their offspring at most other times of year to the gated stile at the side of the garage and back to Reeth.  

Parking: Reeth Village Centre, Honesty Box.

Refreshments:  (Reeth) take your pick from ice cream parlour to pub. Cobbles Teashop, Ivy Cottage, Copper Kettle, White House, Cuckoo Hill Ice Cream Parlour. Buck Hotel, Black Bull Hotel, Kings Arms. (Langthwaite) Red Lion Inn (check opening times).

Toilets: Reeth