Buy the OS Route Map and instructions for this route
Bowland’s precipitous fellsides have a reputation that precedes them, and, as you stare into the abyss from the top of Whin Fell, you’ll no doubt understand why. But the descent of the Ouster Rake Path, which cuts a narrow and very exposed line across the head of a high and horrendously steep hillside, isn’t as bad as it first looks, with only the odd really testing section. You just can’t afford to fall!
After that it’s steeply up, steeply down again — and we mean steeply — and then steeply up again. If it all seems too much, the penny will drop on the final descent from Dunsop Fell, which is user-friendly sinuous singletrack for two and a half kilometres.
And that’s about the sum of it: punishing ups, testing downs, and all played out among some magnificent Lancashire scenery. You’ll have earned your tea and cakes by the time you finish this one.