January 2026
54°23'5.5"N 1°55'50.0"W
This loop packs in 3 different Yorkshire Dales and is a great option for anyone who wants a wild vibe with easy motorway access, great start facilities and loads of other ride options in the area. It’s rideable all year round and we’ve split it into two versions. A MTB option with moorland singletrack in the last quarter, and a mostly mining track ‘Gravel’ option that’s a little longer but easier in terms of tech.
Either way, expect to climb up to amazing Swaledale views, a contour round to the forgotten remoteness of Apedale and then a dive into the history and greener beauty of Wensleydale. Before heading back over for a finish at probably the best cake shop in the Yorkshire - if not the world. And if 30km sounds too much then there’s a 19km short option too.
POLARIS Apedale 8
28.9/33.4KM, 802/914M VERTICAL
Start and finish point - The ride starts and finishes at the Dales Bike Centre (DL11 6AW) between Reeth and Grinton. As well as Claire’s legendary cakes, Stu, Brenda and the team also offer bunkhouse or pod accommodation and a bike shop with servicing and hire. They’re also experts on the local riding and other things to do in Swaledale so can give you excellent recommendations if you need them.
what3words ///defends.isolating.trappings
This what3words address refers to a 3 metre square location. Tap the link or enter the 3 words into the free what3words app to find it.
For full navigation data download the GPX file and watch the Strava fly through. Then watch our ride video for a highlights preview of the route.
Stops & shops
This section isn’t going to take long as once you’ve left the cake paradise of Dales Bike Centre and rolled past the pub in Grinton the next potential food stop is the cafe at Bolton Castle (15km).
That’s only open at certain times though so you might need to divert to the pub at Redmire (17km).
Otherwise it’s a case of making sure you take enough food and drink to get you round with a grin and not crumble into a grumble as you climb back over to Swaledale.
Watch out for
At the risk of this sounding rather bleak, it’s not just hunger you need to watch out for. Swaledale has a well earned reputation as the wildest of the major Yorkshire Dales and there’s nowhere to hide on Harkerside or Grinton Moors if the weather gets nasty. Mobile coverage isn’t guaranteed either so make sure you take extra layers as well as a survival kit if you have to stop. Let someone know where you’re planning to go and when you expect to be back, and always ride in a group for safety if you can.
Route information
Grinton to High Harker Hill
Roll south out of the Dales Bike Centre and over the river Swale on the old bridge past Grinton church. Don’t be too distracted by the ‘Cathedral of the Dales’ though as you need to go straight on when the road turns hard left. This takes you onto the bottom of ‘Col Du Grinton’, which featured in the opening day of the 2014 Tour De France and should have been in the 2019 World Championship Road Race if the whole area hadn’t been flooded.
It’s a solid start to 4km of varying gradient climbing so you’ll probably regret racing to be first across the cattle grid. After a km hook right onto the road that’s signposted Redmire and continue enjoying/enduring the tarmac climb for another few hundred meters before you turn right again onto a broad, rocky moorland track.
Follow this track as it winds past old lead mining shafts and grouse butts, climbing up through the prehistoric bank and ditch earthwork of Long Scar and then topping out on High Harker Hill at 4.5km.
High Harker Hill to Apedale Crossroads
Weather permitting you’ll have had panoramic views opening up across Swaledale, Gunnerside and beyond as you’ve climbed up. But as the track levels up this is the perfect opportunity to take a minute for a snack and to really drink in the scenery as the Swale winds through the valley below and the old dry stone walled farmlands blend into high moorland on the hills opposite.
Watch out for a couple of short twisting descents through the pits, gulleys and spoil mounds of the areas industrial past when you set off again though.
Contour west on the fast rolling tracks, looking out for the singletrack that peels up to the right as you curve round to the south. This is actually the official bridleway and the course of the ‘MTB’ route option as it’s a nice bit of trail that ends with a very pretty stream crossing and short challenge climb out of the far side. If that sounds like a bit much then stay on the mining track and take the left (upwards) option when it splits to follow the ‘Gravel’ route.
Either way you’ll roll over the barren moonscape of Apedale Head (the highest point on the route) on mining track before diving headlong into the dale. It’s a broad track and not ‘that steep’ but where it does get steep it also twists a bit and has some loose gravel over concrete slab sections, so be sensible rather than brave. Not least because this is the hardest part of the ride to get to and it has no mobile phone signal. The next 2km+ is a glorious gradual downhill through the forgotten valley of Apedale which gives major Cairngorm/Highlands vibes even though it’s only a few miles from the A1.
Apedale Crossroads to Castle Bolton
At just over 12.5km you’ll come to Dent’s House crossroads with a few buildings (and randomly a parked Huey helicopter when we rode it). If you’ve already had enough and want to head home then turn left joining the last leg of the ‘Gravel’ route back over to Grinton. The full routes turn right though, heading south up a gentle climb towards Wensleydale.
Go through the field gate straight ahead when the track turns right and enjoy the mile long grassy gallop down into Castle Bolton. There’s nothing scary to worry about but it can get bumpy and boggy in places so be careful not to lose the bottles off your bike or yourself over the bars. Then it’s through the gate and down a short section of rocky bridleway into the beautiful village of Castle Bolton with its spectacularly well preserved 14th century castle.
Castle Bolton to Redmire Moor
Once you’ve had your fill of marvelling at the medieval splendour, follow the road east along the linear green of this wonderfully unspoilt village, through the woods and past the waterfalls to the T junction with Hargill Lane. Don’t be put off by the footpath signs on the gate opposite as it’s marked as a legal road on maps and the grass centred tarmac lane isn’t going to get damaged by bike tyres. See if you can spot the steam trains that run up the valley to Redmire station from Northallerton in summer too.
Join the road to Catterick as it heaves up through Scarlet wood and past the quarry entrance, then take the left turn onto the ‘unsuitable for motors’ lane at 19.5km. Follow this well surfaced track up alongside the field wall until it splits at 20.8km which is where you need to make the MTB or Gravel decision.
If you’re game for some singletrack that might be soggy some of the year and a more technical descent back into Swaledale then take the climbing right option. If you want to stay on well surfaced, easier riding, all weather tracks all the way and don’t mind adding a few km then take the Gravel option by going left and staying level.
The MTB finish
You’ll continue to climb north weaving though the punctured and pock marked mining landscape of Redmire Moor on good, rocky ground until 23km where things start to get grassy. That’s fine in summer but after a very wet January it was soggy and quite slow going with a fair amount of puddle dodging. That’s the same story with the singletrack that starts after Snowden Man gate at 24km. An absolutely glorious ribbon of gradually downhill moorland MTB mirth when dry or frozen, but with a bunch of boggy wheel eaters in worse conditions.
You’re back onto grassy, then rocky double track after a few hundred meters though, descending to the remarkably well preserved Grinton lead smelting mill with its igloo like stone flue piping up the hill to the east. From there it’s down to the road and over the new bridge that replaced the one that got swept away in the 2019 floods. Then it’s back onto singletrack, crossing the first part of the route, and then free ranging down legal adjacent sheep tracks through heather and random rocks back into Grinton. Then it’s over the old bridge and back to Dales Bike Centre for more cake (or soup, or sandwiches etc.)
The Gravel finish
If the sound of potentially soggy singletrack and free range sheep tracks isn’t your cup of tea then take the lower track at 21km and contour along the mine track, past the old flue and chimney to join the Redmire / Grinton Road at 23.2km. You can just go straight up this and home, but the wilder option is to turn off left at 24km as it climbs up to the right. This puts you on a track back to Dent’s House crossroads where this time you turn north up the climb past more grouse butts to the Height of Greets.
From here it’s a wide, fast and fun trail down to the road at 27.6km, before turning off left again just after 29km. You’ll retrace the start of the ride for 1.5km but then rather than grunting up the steep slope to High Harkerside you turn right and drop steeply down on double track to join the back road at Bleak House. From here it’s a couple of km road roll back to the Dales Bike Centre. But be careful as it’s narrow with high walls, some steep descents and sharp corners where you won’t have much space or warning if something is coming the other way.
