I wouldn't reverse

What a maniac.

All sounds a bit dramatic. It was her right of way really.
In this situation I would have put the handbrake on, got out of the car and gone to speak to her. No yelling and flashing, just explain without room for misunderstanding.

However, she sounds aggressive and unpleasant so just move on and try to forget about her. She handled it worse than you did.

The "give way to the uphill driver" should and does have a few caveats IME. If the uphill driver has a passing space just behind them and the downhill one has a passing space half a mile behind them, then nobody would reasonably expect the downhill driver to give way.

(I live in a village which is only reachable by single track lanes).

I would stick up a passive aggressive post on the village FB page OP. "To the lady in the white Mercedes who thought it was appropriate to dazzle me and scream at me the other night" etc. You will probably discover she's a repeat offender and enjoy a group bitchfest about her before the admin comes home from the pub 😆

Oooh
thanks for this! 👍
country lane near me and now I know !

Yes but at the point when one needs to reverse, the previously uphill car is now the downhill one. It’s easier to reverse down a hill than up it IME.

Sorry OP but if this is a road you use often, you really should know that the uphill driver has priority on a single lane hill. Highway Code Rule 155.

It avoids unnecessary clutch control and, in extreme circumstances, failure of the clutch in the uphill car.

If someone flashed their lights at me, and then turned them off, I wouldn't have a clue what they meant. I can't see how it would be a signal to turn down my own lights. In this case, I would probably see it as you being stubborn and making a point that you weren't going to move. I can see why she got shouty.

I don't understand how neither of you managed to spot the glow of oncoming headlights from a distance and therefore select an appropriate passing place to wait for the other vehicle.

I wonder if she thought you were giving way because you flashed her on approach. I know you did it to signal lights, but she may have assumed you were giving the more typical ("you first") signal!

Exactly. Anyone who drives on country roads fairly regularly knows it’s usually quicker for all concerned if you know you’re close to a passing space, to reverse back to it. The other driver is probably one of those who can’t reverse.

I was told that years ago one of the manoeuvres on a driving test was your ability to reverse down a lane. I think that should be re-introduced.

@whyyyyyisitmonddayy do you have a dash cam? They’re worth investing in. I would have done the same as you in the situation. Have found on a few occasions now that merely telling a driver like the one you encountered is on camera is enough to get them to back down.

your fine, did nothing wrong

Probably even more likely because they'd be dazzled too! Turning your lights off in the lanes at night is dumb and dangerous to other road users.

So there was room for 2 cars after all? Sounds like you were both being dramatic.

How would someone coming up behind conceivably miss OP's car given that it must have been bathed in the bright light from the car in front?

I had that twice yesterday. The first, at a wee single-track bridge where in had priority: the person on the other side was incredulous I carried on and didn’t wait. The other was more problematic for me as I was going downhill so knew they had priority but saw they had a passing place right behind them whereas my nearest was a way behind around a bend. Turns out where they stopped was at the
end of the passing place, and if they’d stopped when they saw me they would have been IN the huge passing place. Stopped worrying about priorities then.

I think you embarrassed her, OP. She can't reverse and you found her out.

Some people can't reverse properly, which makes them a nightmare on narrow lanes.

Even if I'm going uphill, if I'm close to a passing space I'll reverse back to it. It's common courtesy and can make it faster for me than waiting for someone to reverse 50 or 100 yards downhill.

Sorry that happened to you, OP.

Edited for typo.

You were dead right.
Same thing happened to me, i was 3/4 down a narrow street and a guy in a tank turned on to the road, could clearly see me and kept coming towards me.

He started waving at me to back up.
I turned off the car and locked my doors, tapped my watch making it clear I had nowhere to be.

He was going mad.
I let him go rant and gesticulate, and then pointed to my dash capturing it all.
He calmed down and backed up.
I took my sweet time to drive up and smiled as I passed.
Arsehole.

You were not in the wrong . You should not manoevre a vehicle if it is unsafe for you to do so.
This trumps the give way to the vehicle coming uphill rule.
She needed to reverse into the passing place and he behavior was road rage.