High Cup Gill is a short U-shaped valley deeply incised into the Pennine scarp to the northeast of Appleby-in-Westmorland in Cumbria and within the North Pennines AONB in northern England. It is considered to be glacial in origin, ice having over-ridden the area during successive ice ages. To its southeast is Murton Fell whilst Dufton Fell is to the north. The Ordnance Survey name the valley as High Cup Gill but it is often referred to by the name High Cup Nick, a name which properly refers in a more limited sense to the point at its northeastern limit where the headwaters of Highcup Gill Beck pass from the relatively flat terrain of High Cup Plain over the lip of High Cup Scar into the valley. 'Gill' is a word of Norse origin meaning narrow valley or ravine whilst 'beck' signifies a stream; both occur widely in the hills of northern England. As seen in the classic view southwest over the valley into the Vale of Eden from its head at High Cup Nick, it is considered one of the finest natural features in northern England. High Cup Scar is formed by a near-horizontal outcrop of the Whin Sill, a doleriteintrusion of late Carboniferous age which underlies much of the North Pennines and northeast England. Tumbled blocks of this rock are scattered down the scree slopes beneath the scar. A notable pinnacle of this rock on the northern side of the valley is known as Nichol or Nichol's Chair after a local cobbler who, for a bet, practised his craft perched on its summit. The country rock into which the sill is intruded is the Alston Formation, a part of the Yoredale Group of multiple layers of limestones, sandstones, siltstones and mudstones. At the base of the gill, though largely obscured by the dolerite blocks, are older rocks: the sedimentary rocks of the Ravenstonedale Group and, beneath them, the metamorphosed slates and sandstones of the Skiddaw Group which date from the Ordovician period. The Pennine Way skirts the valley on its northern side by a traditional route known as 'Narrow Gate' as it runs from Dufton east via Maize Beck and Cauldron Snout to Forest in Teesdale. This national trail briefly splits into two separate routes running on either bank of Maize Beck; it is the southerly of the two which leads via High Cup Nick. The famous fellwalker Alfred Wainwright describes High Cup as "a great moment on the journey" in his book Pennine Way Companion. The whole of the valley is within an area mapped as open country under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 hence there is a general right for walkers to roam at will. This section of the Pennine Way is a bridleway therefore legally available to cyclists and horseriders too.
