High Cup Nick

High Cup Nick is one of the finest glacial landforms in England - a near-perfect U-shaped valley slicing into the North Pennine escarpment above the Eden Valley, its symmetrical walls rimmed by the dark dolerite crag of the Whin Sill. Seen from the lip, the valley sweeps away in a clean curve toward the distant Lakeland fells, and it is a spectacular, genuinely wild subject for aerial photography. The land is open access CRoW common and there is no reservoir or National Trust ownership at the viewpoint, so responsible taking off and landing is realistic here - a real rarity for a location this dramatic. The trade-off is the walk: it is a committing several-mile approach on the Pennine Way from Dufton, with no facilities, exposed to fast-changing weather. Wind pours over the escarpment edge and can be fierce and turbulent right at the lip, so set up back from the drop, launch off flat ground and keep firm control near the edge. There is no phone signal for much of the route. Go on a settled, clear day - haze and low cloud will hide the whole point of the place - and time it for morning light filling the valley, when the Whin Sill columns catch the sun and the air is usually calmest.