Trail running in Wharfedale

This loop crosses genuine open moorland with long sightlines over Wharfedale, on access land that's free to roam off the main tracks if you want to vary your line.

Half the distance of the long loop but the same open moorland character - a good way to get a feel for Barden Moor without committing to a half-day out.

The summit carries Bronze Age burial cairns and the wreckage site of a WWII aircraft just south of the trig point - a hill with more history packed into one top than its modest height suggests.

Priory ruins, limestone riverside, and the Strid - one of the most dramatic river narrows in England. This is Wharfedale at its most photogenic.

A direct climb out of the valley earns you a wide plateau with views stretching from the Three Peaks to the North Yorkshire Moors.

A steep climb rewards you with one of the best viewpoints in the southern Dales — Wharfedale laid out below in both directions.

You get one of the prettiest stretches of the River Wharfe, the stepping stones and the hump-backed bridge at Burnsall, wrapped into a proper dale circuit rather than a quick there-and-back.

You get ancient ash woodland alive with birdsong and a return along one of the loveliest stretches of the River Wharfe, all from the doorstep of Grassington.

The moor above Grassington has layers — wildflowers, curlews, and the eerie ruins of 18th-century lead mines that made this one of England's most productive mining landscapes.

It links a big day in Wharfedale with the wide-open water and skies around Grimwith, so you get valley running, moorland crossings and a proper reservoir circuit all in one loop without needing a second car.

Proper Dales miles — limestone scars, wide skies, and the kind of distance that sorts out who's eaten their breakfast. This is a full day out.

You run the length of Mastiles Lane, an arrow-straight Roman road across Malham Moor, with the great overhang of Kilnsey Crag as the landmark at the valley end.

Woodland, waterfall, open moorland, and a gritstone tor — this route packs an unusual amount of variety into one 21.9km day out.

Simon's Seat is one of Wharfedale's best short climbs on its own, and this route turns the trip up to it into the centrepiece of a full ultra distance day rather than an afternoon out.

This is the full southern Dales in one enormous self-navigated loop: Malham Tarn, the summit of Buckden Pike, Trollers Gill, Simon's Seat and a string of the prettiest villages in the country.

Three big Wharfedale summits with none of the crowds or paved paths, just rough moorland, bog and proper navigation across the roof of the dale.

It strings together several of the Dales' individually famous valleys into a single day, so instead of picking one dale to explore you cross through four or five of them back to back.