Starting from the village of Shap, this walk follows the River Lowther to Shap Abbey, continues to Knipe Scar and returns via Rosgill. It’s a pleasant ramble with historical interest. Knipe Scar’s mile-long terrace offers far reaching views across the valley to Haweswater Reservoir and the surrounding fells.

Shap & Knipe route map

Shap & Knipe route map

1. Cross the A6, turn right then left along Crossgarth. Take the first right then after Wasdale House turn left onto the footpath signed Keld. Pass the megalithic monument of Goggleby Stone, cross a track and keep ahead on a footpath that runs alongside the road on the right. Join the road and continue into Keld to view the chapel. Return up the road and turn left onto a path signed Shap Abbey, going past a tennis court. Cross the ladder stile then bear right to near the end of the long field. Cross a wall stile on the left and continue in the same direction. Shap Abbey appears through trees on the left. Descend to a concrete road, cross the footbridge next to the car park and visit the abbey ruins.

Start point qr-code

Start point qr-code

2. Return to a wicket gate above the footbridge and follow an uphill path above the pretty river valley, then descending below overhead power lines, over a wall stile and across a reedy field to a fingerpost. Turn right down the tarmac lane signed Rosgill and keep straight on where it bends left. Follow the waymarked path, crossing the attractive Parish Crag packhorse bridge. On meeting a road turn right, cross the bridge over the River Lowther and after 100 yards turn left. Follow the lane past Hegdale and continue along the line of the river on the left to Bampton Grange Church. Turn left onto the road, cross the bridge, then turn right. Immediately after crossing the bridge over Haweswater Beck turn right and follow the footpath alongside the River Lowther to a suspension footbridge.

Goggleby Stone

Goggleby Stone

3. Cross the footbridge then veer right going uphill to cross the road. Keep in the same direction to go around the outside corner of a wall on the left. Climb steeply to near the northern end of Knipe Scar. Knipe comes from the Old Norse word gnipa meaning a jutting crag or rocky summit. Turn sharp right and walk above the Scar for about 300 yards then bear left towards the woodland. Follow the path alongside the wall on the left, going behind gorse bushes. Where the gorse ends, descend to a gate on the right. Follow the lane past Scarside down to the road and turn left. After 800 yards, immediately after passing a walled track on the left, bear right and walk along a track into Rosgill (meaning a stream where horses graze).

OS route map qr-code

OS route map qr-code

4. Turn right onto the road then left onto a signed footpath going between two cottages. At a gateway take the path bearing left uphill to the left of a larch woodland. Go through a gated gap stile and across multiple fields in the direction shown by waymarkers, via stiles with painted green stones and posts. The path heads in a near straight line to Shap, meeting a road at a stile in a field corner to the right of a well-preserved limekiln. Turn right then left across a road onto the footpath signed Shap. Turn left on the road and where it bends right, keep right onto a walled footpath. On meeting a road turn left then right at the fire station and beside the A6 to the car park.

This is one of 67 walks in volume 1 of John Edmondson’s book, “Walkbase Kendal”