Oxnop Beck runs at the foot of Oxnop Scar. The Beck springs from the opposite site of the moorland road (Cross Top) , at Oxnop Beck Head, not far from where this image was taken.

As the Beck descends it cuts deeper into the valley floor, and the V shaped valley sides close in. The surrounding ground looks chaotic in appearance, the turf hiding the large lumps and bumps that make up this territory.

From Red Braes there is a terrific view down the Oxnop Ghyll and into the upper valley woodland.

Cutting into the west riverbank of Oxnop Beck the Red Braes Gill displays a dry but deep connecting channel. This provides an agreeable pastoral window to the far side of the Beck. Having now rounded Satron Moor, Oxnop Scar no longer occludes the valleyscape beyond. Miles Pasture has a green and pleasant appearaance compared to the moorland above.

In similar vein to Red Braes Gill, Snowden Gill, flush with running water, cuts a channel through to Oxnop Beck, again permitting a pastoral window through to a small settlement of Oxnop and the trees lining the banks of Stotter Gill.

From the path on Miles Pasture a panoramic view opens out across Oxnop Beck to Oxnop Side. A small rounded 459m hill is seen in the top left of the image. This is un-named on the OS, but stands proud because of its local uniqueness. To its south is Snowden Gill, to its north is Stony Gill, and to its south west is Snipe Rigg.

Observiing Snowden Gill from Miles Pasture allows a glimpse of an Oxnop tributory, its fertile banks banded with a dense covering of deciduous trees that merge with those of Oxnop Beck. Viewed from the road this Gill, although oifering a view to the pastures beyond Oxnop Beck, do not allow a view of this small wooded valley.

Stotter Gill, which issues at Simon Grooves just north of Satron Tarn, flows across Satron Side. Where it meets the path there is a curved stone bridge spanning the considerable valley occasioned by the Gill. Stotter Gill merges with Oxnop Beck near to Tute Hill.

Between Rash Gill and Stony Gill an un-named tributary passes under the moorland road coming down from Oxnop Scar. A path beside it heads to the tributary as it enters a west facing extension of Kearton's Wood near to High Oxnop Farm. The path can be followed to Stony Gill, with which the tributary converges, but not as far as the imminent Oxnop Gill convergence.

Descending Satron Side to shadow Kearton's Wood and Oxnop Beck allows a glorious landscape towards Ivelet Moor, Kisdon and the Swale Valley.

Oxnop Beck flows through the centre of Kearton's Wood, snaking its way downhill to its confluence with the River Swale. The Oxnop Beck turns north east for a hundred yards or so between the farms of Hill Top and Castle How, and the woodland turns with it. Where the Beck and Wood turn north west again, to resume their former course, Spout Gill and an accompanying extension of the woodland merge from the east.

Gill Head Farmhouse bears an attractive setting on the lower rim of Satron Side, backing onto Kearton's Wood and Oxnop Beck. It has extensive pastural views over Swaledale. Gill Head and its accompanying stable and byre have a Grade II Listing with Historic England.

The Oxnop Beck emerges from Kearton's Wood at Low Oxnop, a hundred yards or so from the Muker to Gunnerside Road. The road is spanned by the Oxnop Bridge, allowing the Beck to continue its destiny of convergence with the River Swale on the west side of Ivelet Bridge.

Coast to Coast Trail Guide

"Hiking the Coast to Coast" is a digitally enhanced eBook available from Apple Books for all people who have either a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, and is designed to accompany you on your walk of the Coast to Coast path. The trail guide contains Ordnance Survey maps and other advanced mapping features, step by step directions, hundreds of colour photographs, details of the route, its conditions in different weather and research snippets relating to places of interest along the way.