The single-track roads, and the etiquette

By Ruth Ardsley · 5 min read

A good part of this landscape is only reachable on roads about a car and a half wide, with grass up the middle and a drystone wall on at least one side. They are the best driving in the county and they come with a set of conventions that nobody writes down.

Passing places

They are for pulling into, not parking in. If the passing place is on your side you use it; if it is on theirs you wait opposite it. Whoever is nearer one gives way, regardless of who was there first.

The wave

You raise a couple of fingers off the wheel. Not a full wave. Failing to do it marks you out immediately.

Sheep

They are not fenced in and they have absolutely no road sense. Slow right down. A sheep will look directly at you and then walk into the car.

Blind summits

Assume there is a tractor over every one of them, because eventually there is.