Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at west end of Newbiggin on Lune where there is ample parking in the Village Square (GR: NY 704 053, What3Words: ///variously.secure.client) at 10.15am. 10 miles. 1,700’of climbing.Hard. £7

This walk is at the northern end of the Howgills’ familiar swooping hills and valleys which make the Howgills different to other northern dales. A long steady climb takes us to the summit of Green Bell at 1,984’ and on to Randygill Top at 2,047’ with splendid views back over the Warcop Fells. We descend back to the valley and follow a pretty path through woods and along Weasdale back to Newbiggin.

Leave Station car park 9.00am. Start at the Dales Countryside Museum CP – DL8 3NT (GR: SD 875 899, What3Words: ///skins.cubic.panels) at 10.00am. 11 Miles. Moderate. £7

A varied walk through the lovely countryside and villages around the market town of Hawes. Round the route we will enjoy spotting a series of inventive mosaics. These evoke the life, the flora and fauna, and the history of the area. The route takes us to Burtersett and on to Gayle. We visit Aysgill Force before picking up a series of tracks and lanes on our way to Appersett and Hardraw and the ascent to Sedbusk. From here we descend into the valley and back to Hawes. The route crosses rolling countryside, with plenty of ups and downs, but with the exception of a short climb out of Hardraw, none of these are particularly steep. There are, however, a number of narrow pinch stiles. 

Leave Station car park 9.00am. Start at Rukins Farm Car Park (GR: NY 892 012, What3Words: ///attending.sonic.drag) at 10.00am. 8 Miles. Moderate. £7

The journey to the source of the Swale takes us into one of the remotest corners of Swaledale, an area of seemingly endless fells and deep gills, of wide skies and scattered farms. Several characteristic “forces” [waterfalls], all impressive after rain, add to the attractiveness of the scene. Leaving Keld we follow Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Trail through dramatic Whitsundale to Ravenseat, before dropping down to the source of the Swale. A short walk along the river, across open moorland and a terrace above the river takes us back to Keld – with further waterfalls on the way. There are a couple of short but steepish climbs enroute.

The Station, Richmond, DL10 4LD | 10:00am | free | café, bookstall, disabled access

In conjunction with the Festival, The Station will be hosting a Book Fair - come along and browse a variety of new, second-hand, antiquarian and collectable books from expert sellers on The Platform - as well as our regular ‘Lost and Found’ book stall. Heaven for all bookworms and collectors!

Meet outside the Town Hall at 2.15pm. Free but donations to Richmondshire Museum most welcome.

This walk explores Richmond’s Wynds and Lanes offering big views, intriguing nooks, secret places and a chance to hear of the people who lived in them. The walk is mostly on pavements but also has some steep slopes and steps.

Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL| 4:00pm | £15 | refreshments | bookstall | disabled access

Rachel Hewitt is a prize-winning author: notably the best-selling Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey (2010) and more recently, The Last Bastion: A History of Women in Sport 1984-2024 (2024). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and her latest book, Every Day. In Her Nature blends memoir, history and a feminist perspective to reveal how women have long found joy, strength and power in outdoor adventure – and how men have tried to stop them. In conversation with Rachel will be journalist, Rosemary Brown. An avid traveler, she is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Churchill Fellow. In her quest to put female adventurers 'back on the map' she speaks at the Globetrotters Club and helped to organise The Heritage of Women in Exploration conference at the Royal Geographical Society. Her latest book is Moving Mountains on women in climbing, celebrates nine extraordinary women climbers commemorated in peaks that bear their names. Defying extreme altitudes and discrimination, they summitted mountains across the globe to achieve a distinction long reserved for men and monarchs. Blending biography, adventure and history, Moving Mountains restores these pioneers to their rightful place in exploration.

Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL| 7:30pm | £10 | refreshments | bookstall | disabled access

The Himalaya is not a wilderness! For thousands of years the landscape has formed the region’s history, and been formed by people with their flocks, ploughs, and imaginations in turn. Religion, economy, and politics were derived from the land -- and made their mark on it. In his innovative book Human Nature, Thomas Bell mixes travel and anthropology to write a history of Nepal as a cultural history of the environment and compares it to Western environmental ideas.

Thomas Bell lived in Kathmandu for almost 20 years, working as a foreign correspondent, UN political officer and human rights researcher.