The Yorkshire Dales 30 – fancy a challenge hiking Yorkshire's 30 highest peaks?

timbarber
24 minutes ago
6 min read

I came across the idea of the Yorkshire 30 before Covid, when looking for inspiration for walking routes on the Where 2 Walk website created by experienced walking guide Jonathan Smith. In itself it is a wonderful resource for walkers with over 600 free to use walks listed in the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, Northumberland and North York Moors.

If you haven’t come across it I would urge you to check it out – www.where2walk.co.uk

Whilst on the site I came across a list of mountains called the Dales 30, which were all over 2,000ft and all located within the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. (They also have drops of 99ft in each direction). Just to explain that Jonathan Smith chose the 2,000ft criteria as its pretty much the difference between a mountain and a hill.

The Lake District has its Wainwright’s Challenge, Scotland its Munros, so it’s great that we in Yorkshire have a similar challenge!

Jonathan had stated previously that he felt that “superb and in most cases rarely visited mountains needed their own challenge”.

I have to admit I had heard of some of the bigger ones, having previously completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge, the demanding 24 mile hike which includes the peaks of Whernside, Ingleborough and Penyghent which have to be walked in under 12 hours. But I had never really walked in the Howgills or heard of Yarlside, The Calf or Baugh Fell.

I decided that I needed to start from scratch and along with my wife and my old pal McFet from my rugby playing days, set about bagging all 30. There were a few that McFet has done recently with others, so I did have a couple of great days out hiking by myself with my faithful black Labrador Bronte. These were special days and Bronte often enjoyed sharing my pork pie at the summit. Sadly Bronte snapped her ACL in 2025 and has not been able to join me on the final two.

It’s worth noting that Jonathan Smith has now launched a dedicated Yorkshire Dales 30 website www.dales30.co.uk which gives even more information about each mountain and even sells some merchandise!

I have blogged about some of these walks over the last few years, so don’t plan to go through every walk but I thought readers maybe interested in a bit more information and a few top tips.

With regards to the challenge it took longer than expected. When McFet and I had only bagged 4 we were locked down by covid for quite a few months. I vividly remember the joy and freedom to be able to go off in the car and have the freedom to be able to climb some more hills. After the same daily dog walks, day after day for your 30 minutes exercise we made the most of things once things opened up.

Whilst we did get locked down again – my wife and I took advantage of some free time during covid to walk the Yorkshire 3 Peaks again. My blog about this challenge is below, but just worth mentioning that I have never before or after done 65,000 steps in a day and needless to say I could barely walk the next day!

Another peak I did with my wife was Buckden Pike – the 7^th highest peak in Yorkshire. We booked in for Sunday lunch at 1pm at The Buck Inn in Buckden which gave us plenty of added incentive to bosh out the walk at a good old pace one Sunday morning even though there was snow up on top. The views back down into Wharfedale on the descent are worth the pain of the initial climb.

my wife liz with views back into Wharfedale near Starbottom

It’s worth mentioning that some of the mountains due to boundary changes are no longer officially in Yorkshire, with a number of them being in the Cumbrian Pennines or Howgill Fells, but they are all within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Living just outside Ilkley, it could sometimes take a couple of hours drive to get to the start point.

There were a number of times when we booked rooms in pubs or Air BnB’s to tick off a few peaks in more remote areas.

The ridge from Simon's Fell to Ingleborough

Both McFet and I had completed the same 28 peaks, but with just 2 to go I started to experience terrible pain in my left hip, which gradually left me on crutches and unable to weight bear. In January 2025 I had a hip replacement and whilst I was up walking again quickly, I was nervous about getting up high and climbing again.

I did test out a few hills and increased my fitness and stamina over the rest of the year and the start of 2026 until I decided the time was right to give the last couple a go. In July 2026 after almost a 2 year delay, we managed to bag Randy Gill Top. A relatively gentle, steady climb in the Howgill Fells.

This just left Fell Head also in the Howgills and at 2,100 feet only the 23^rd highest Yorkshire Peak. This was way harder than I was expecting and the climbing was on rougher ground and the ascents steeper than many of the pervious peaks. The route we chose was an 8 mile variant of one of Jonathan Smith’s routes.

I always find it interesting to hear how many miles people think they walk in an hour, but climbing definitely slows you down and for this hill we took 5 and a half hours (mainly down to me) - so it really was a slog.

A Weegemans of Otley pork pie and a slug of sloe gin did help provide a lift for the descent!

We celebrated with a night out in Kirkby Lonsdale and I proudly wore my Dales 30 cap!

This has been an amazing challenge which has tested fitness and navigation skills to the max. I think the three toughest for me were in no particular order:

Yockenthwaite Moor – whilst only the 22^nd highest peak, once we climbed up high we hit the peat hags. The final hours ascent then the first hours descent were across bogs where the extra effort to lift your boots out of the damp peat which sucked your feet down, meant every step was a night mare. We staggered back to the car after this one!

Baugh Fell – not really any paths up and down. Really took a lot of navigating, taking bearings to get to the summit. The descent had lots of tributories of a beck to cross, and quite damp and boggy. I was wearing a well-worn in pair of Zamberlan boots I had had for 4 years with two pairs of socks – yet still ended up with a blister!

Fell Head – again not a particularly high peak comparatively was just a steep, rough climb. Probably made worse having just come back from two weeks abusing my body on a family holiday!

I was asked by a friend who is contemplating the challenge for any advice? My advice would be:

1. Take walking sticks – they take the pressure from your knees, help with balance on descents and mean you can use your upper body to pull yourself up slopes on ascents.

2. Take a small first aid kit and an emergency blanket. Some of the locations are very remote and should you have a fall or injury the medical kit will help should a situation arise.

3. If you navigate using OS Maps on a mobile device, take a power bank in case your phone runs out of juice and make sure you have a paper map and compass in your rucksack as a fall back.

4. Don’t skimp in the amount of water you take, some of the mountains are quite tough and you don’t want to get dehydrated.

Liz and Bronte on the way up Great Whernside from Kettlewell

So I hope this blog and some of the pictures inspire you to take up the challenge yourself. It is something I feel immensely proud of to have completed and has left me with some great memories.

A few of my blogs about some of these climbs can be read below:

Baugh Fell

https://www.realyorkshireblog.com/post/baugh-fell-a-difficult-hike-up-the-twelfth-highest-peak-in-the-yorkshiredales30

Buckden Pike

https://www.realyorkshireblog.com/post/buckden-pike-circlular-a-hike-up-yorkshire-s-7th-highest-peak