Old Gang Smelt Mill Route

This is an out and back walk: 3 km each way, 6 km (3.7 miles) round trip, following Old Gang Beck from Surrender Bridge up to the Old Gang smelt mill ruins and returning the same way. It is the green Route for all option, classed as wheelchair accessible, with assistance animals welcome. Allow about 2 to 2.5 hours including time among the ruins.

From the parking area near Surrender Bridge the track runs steadily up the valley beside the beck, with the moor rising on both sides and old workings gradually appearing in the ground around you. The payoff is the industrial complex at the top: the early nineteenth century smelt mill, a long peat store (roughly 119 m long and 6.4 m wide, divided into three bays), the remains of an older mill and dressing floor, plus levels, hushes, shallow shafts and a spoil heap running more than 500 m. Turn around at the mill area and retrace the same track down.

• The track is at least 2 m wide with well-compacted aggregate, and the steepest gradient is 1:10.
• The surface and grades are easy, but the full 6 km makes this a genuine half day for slower walkers or anyone using a mobility device.
• The corridor climbs gently overall, sitting roughly between 346 m and 457 m above sea level.
• Beyond the mill the track becomes more undulating and loses its easy character, so the mill is the sensible turning point for this walk.

Listen and look up for buzzard and raven over the valley sides, though nothing is guaranteed. Early or late in the day the low side light picks out the stonework and the spoil ridges well, and the same light flatters the walk back down the valley.

• Start at Surrender Bridge (SD989999), reached from Reeth by turning at Healaugh toward Langthwaite.
• There is an informal parking area just before the bridge, so arrive with a plan B if it is full.
• The nearest public toilets are in Reeth, not at the start.

This is a former lead mining landscape, so treat the ground with respect. Lead is poisonous, and open or poorly capped shafts may lie near the route. Stay on the track, keep out of the ruins and any hazardous structures, and keep children close. Dogs are welcome on the public rights of way here: keep them on a lead where livestock is present, use a short lead from March to July, and keep them under close control around other people and wildlife.

A separate and considerably harder circular option of about 9 km continues past the mill over Reeth High Moor. That is a different walk with rougher, more undulating ground, and it is not part of this accessible route.