Fleet Moss

The highest surfaced road in the Yorkshire Dales, an unclassified switchback over Fleet Moss linking Wensleydale at Hawes with upper Wharfedale at Kettlewell.

The road over Fleet Moss is the highest tarmac in Yorkshire, cresting near 1,930ft on the wild watershed dividing Wensleydale from Wharfedale. From Gayle, just above Hawes, an unclassified single-track lane claws up onto the peat moss in steep ramps, levels across a bleak summit plateau, then drops via Oughtershaw and along Langstrothdale beside the young River Wharfe, finally running down through Buckden and the floor of upper Wharfedale into Kettlewell. It is narrow, unclassified and unforgiving, with gradients to 1-in-5, blind brows and grass up the centre, beloved of cyclists for exactly that reason. Mind the steep 20 percent pitches near the Fleet Moss summit, single-track blind summits where you must yield, and fog, ice and snow that bury the high moss for much of winter.