Walking in Lancashire. Mary Welsh
to negotiate several tiny ditch-like streams. You may have to move to the left to cross them, and then right again to go on along the general line of the walk. Look ahead to see two railway viaducts and a bridge – aim for the larger, many-arched viaduct to the right, nearer to Melling.
Stride ahead over the pasture, keeping to the right of the Old Lune, to reach the corner of a hedge where there is a prominent waymark. Go on, following the well-waymarked route until the path comes to two stiles close to the water’s edge. Once over the stiles follow the track, keeping to the side of the fence on your right. Go through the waymarked kissing gate and along the farm track that runs below the railway embankment on the Melling side of the viaduct.
Follow the track as it winds steadily right, and when it comes to the A683 turn right and walk 100 metres into the village of Melling. You might like to visit the church and view the lovely old houses that line the main road here. If not, continue the route by taking the first left between Melling Hall and the vicarage, well before the church, to walk up Wennington Road.
Continue uphill on the pavement on the left to come to a footpath sign. A few metres beyond there is another footpath sign, high on a lamp post. This directs you across the road to a path that slopes up through trees to a gate to a large steep pasture. Go through the gate and keep beside the hedge on your left until you reach a stile through a fence on the left. Beyond the stile continue in the same general direction, uphill, to a further stile in the fence ahead.
Continue on uphill, bearing slightly left, to a waymarked stile to the left of a small copse. Walk ahead to cross a turf bridge to a narrow tarmacked road. Here you turn right and climb gently to Lodge Farm – to the left stretch the hills of the Forest of Bowland. Bear left to walk along the side of the farmhouse, pass through a gate and walk ahead, dropping downhill to climb a stile. Follow the way as it winds left, keeping to the right side of a sunken track, then go on beside a very steep-sided, tree-lined gill.
Where the gill swings left and you reach the outbuildings and huge silage pit before Park House farm, take the gated cart track on the right. Climb gently up through the breezy pasture to where the track divides. Here turn left and go on the pleasing way to pass through a narrow strip of woodland. Emerge onto a pasture and walk for a short distance beside the wall on your right, then take a waymarked stile on your right. Continue up the other side of the wall to climb an obvious ladderstile. Beyond, turn right and follow the wall round on your right to reach a waymarked gate. Go through the gate and walk ahead for a few steps to join a track where you turn left and drop downhill to the left side of a conifer plantation. Continue downhill, keeping beside the wall on the right almost to the road, and then walk a few metres left to a gate to the A683, which you cross with care.
Walk right for 150 metres, using the verge where possible, to a signposted stiled footpath on your left. Follow the path left towards Holme Head farm, keeping outside the farm fence and with a huge slurry tank to your left. Go on to a small gate on the left at the corner of the pasture, with the footpath sign on the far side. Carry on to pass through a metal gate, then climb a slope and take the second gate on the left.
Motte and bailey beside Loyn Bridge
Go ahead to come to the dry moat of the motte and bailey mentioned earlier. This ancient fortification occupied an ideal defensive position overlooking the Lune. Today it supports magnificent beech trees and Scots pine, and in spring its slopes are covered with bluebells. Walk round above the moat, which stops at a point where once the River Lune flowed along its side.
Walk on to drop down the slope, past a modern defensive building – a 1939–45 wartime pillbox – to a stile to the lane to Loyn Bridge. Turn left and walk for 500 metres to join the A-road, where another 600 metres brings you back to the parking area.
WALK 8
Low Bentham
| Start/Finish | Low Bentham |
| Distance | 11.4km (7 miles) |
| Time | 4 hours |
| Terrain | Easy walking |
| Maps | OS Explorer OL41 |
This walk takes you through rolling pastures with extensive views over Lancashire and Yorkshire. Although your walking starts in Yorkshire, for most of the way you are in a lovely quiet corner of Lancashire. Old field paths linking one farm with another were in use long before today’s connecting roads were constructed. The route passes through several deciduous woods where, in spring, trees slant down slopes to small streams and the floor is covered with a vast carpet of bluebells. If you complete the walk a week or so later you will hear the haunting cry of the curlew and the wild musical whistle of the green plover that nests in the pastures. Go warily along hedgerows or over long grass where pheasants may nest, the females lying so still that you can pass without them blinking an eye.
This walk entails climbing many stiles and passing through farm gates – not all of which are waymarked.
Park in the free car park at Low Bentham, grid ref 651694, which lies on the south side of Low Bentham Road. Turn left out of the car park and walk west through the village, crossing the bridge over the River Wenning flowing north. Continue under the railway bridge and walk on with care to turn left into Eskew Lane, immediately beyond the Punch Bowl Inn (dated 1670). Unexpectedly the River Wenning is now on the right – but flowing south under a splendid arched bridge. A look at your map solves the puzzle – this is where the river makes a large S-shaped curve.
Walk along the lane for 200 metres to take the signposted stiled footpath on the left. Continue ahead to pass through a gateless gap, and then veer slightly left (east) away from the wall and hedge on your right. Climb the long sloping pasture and pass a house, Cloudsbank, on your left, then carry on for a few steps to a signposted stile to the right of a gate onto Mill Lane.
Turn right to continue along the lane and take the second signposted way on the right – from this good track you have a grand view of High and Low Bentham. Continue to the yard of Kirkbeck, a gracious farmhouse dated 1676 – a monastery stood here earlier and its stone was used to construct the farm. Just before the house follow the waymark directing you right. Go slightly left across a small yard and take a stepped stile over a wall to the left of a barn. Descend a small pasture, slightly left again, and cross a wooden footbridge over Eskew Beck and into Lancashire. Climb up the slope through woodland, where the path is deeply littered with leaves, and go on to a stile. Keeping beside the beck, deep in its wooded gill, continue left and cross the next stile. Keep ahead over a pasture to a stepped stile to Mewith Lane (here in early autumn harebells flower in profusion), turn right, and then take the next left turn, which is a track to Oak Bank farm.
Wooden footbridge over Eskew Beck
Walk in front of the farmhouse and turn left to a gate just beyond. Pass below two magnificent horsechestnut trees shadowing a yard to go through a waymarked wicket gate onto a pasture. Cross to the far right corner where there is a white post (out of sight at first). Climb a stile and cross a plank footbridge and go on ahead in the same direction to take the next stile. Turn right beyond it, walk to a gate onto Spen Brow and turn right. Stroll along the lane until you reach Spen Lodge on the right, with its white studded door.
Take the gate opposite the lodge and head over the pasture to the side of Spen Gill Wood. Walk downhill with the plantation to your left, taking care here as the ground can be very wet all the way down beside the trees. Go through the muddy gateway to Spens Farm and turn immediately right through a small gate. Carry on over a lawn to a stile, and then strike left to join the track through this open area. There is walled woodland to the right, and enormous high slopes supporting more deciduous woodland to the left.