Access land around Ingleborough will be one of the areas tackled in the walks

Walkers who want to get off the footpaths and enjoy their right to roam can join a series of free hikes organised by a national park.

The walks, on Countryside and Rights of Way open access areas, will be led by rangers from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in June and July. The authority says it wants people to see areas with which they may not be familiar.

Alan Hulme, the national park ranger-services manager, said: “The idea of these walks is to give people a chance to meet the local area ranger and to experience new areas of the national park that they may not have seen before, away from the rights of way.”

The walks will start on 4 June. Areas covered are: Longstone Fell, east of Sedbergh; Ingleborough; the Kettlewell area; Melmerby Moor in Coverdale, and Ivelet Moor near Muker in Swaledale.

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act opened up more than 1,010 sq km (390 square miles) of walking country in the Yorkshire Dales – 62 per cent of the national park. Previously, only four per cent of the area was access land.

Details and dates of the walks can be found on the authority’s website.