England's best views: Wrynose Bottom to Hardknott Pass

Simon Jenkins chooses the view from Wrynose Bottom to Hardknott Pass as one of England's best views

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Wrynose Bottom to Hardknott Pass, Cumbria from Cockley Beck

‘A single tarmac track rises west from Coniston and climbs busily alongside Widdy Gill stream. The route surmounts Wrynose and then swoops down the open fellside to the head of Duddendale. It then climbs again, precipitously, over Hardknott pass into Eskdale.

The traverse is some 15 miles of uninhabited moorland. The best place to halt is above Cockley Beck. Here, the valley of the Dudden can be seen running 25 miles south to Morecambe Bay. A luxuriant flow of green fields sweep down between the yellows, browns and mauves of the flanking slopes,

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