7.3 miles | 11.8 km | 269 m Ascent | 8.7 Naismith miles | Kate Rowe / Kate Butcher
It seems like a while since we visited the Forest of Bowland, and a quick check on the website confirms that it was on April 15th that we walked at Newton; so it’s a nice to renew our acquaintance with this quieter area.
This time we base our walk at Downham, a lovely village just outside Clitheroe. It’s one of the traditional starting points for a walk up Pendle Hill. We have the famous hill looming above us for much of the route, but we don’t climb it. Instead, we follow beck-side paths up to Twiston, and then loop back via Twiston Mill, and Downham Mill using the Lancashire Way path. A quick visit to the lovely Swanside packhorse bridge makes a great lunch stop before we head over to Chatburn crossing the A59, and a Roman road to skirt round Worsaw Hill, known for burial mounds and fossils, before returning to Downham for ice cream.
108 Easy
Walks
5.2 miles | 8.3 km | 228 m Ascent | 6.3 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Having enjoyed a run of five walks over 12km and therefore graded as “moderate”, we return to Silverdale and Arnside, a favourite area of the group, for an easier walk.
Easy is not the same as dull though, and this walk manages to pack a lot into quite a comfortable distance: Great views of Morecambe Bay and the Kent estuary, sandy beaches, coves and caves, Heathwaite Woods, an area particularly known for orchids and other wild flowers within the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape, the intriguing stunted trees of Arnside Knott, a rare fragment of the once common temperate rainforest that covered much of western Britain, and an ancient pele tower.
6.2 miles | 10.0 km | 500 m Ascent | 8.7 Naismith miles | Valerie Eccles
When we live in and around the Yorkshire Dales, it’s easy to be blasé about the Yorkshire three peaks, or even to dismiss them as mere tourist attractions. That would be a mistake; all three offer a choice of great walks, and a series of views that changes with the season. On this occasion we tackle Pen-y-Ghent starting near St Oswald’s church, then going via Brackenbottom, to approach the peak from the southern side using the Pennine Way path. That gets the steep climb (and it is somewhat brutal) out of the way early. There is then ample opportunity to recover in the shelters at the peak before we embark on a gentler return to the north - still on the Pennine Way, before diverting to see the spectacular Hull Pot. Finally, we return to Horton by the Pennine Journey path.
7.1 miles | 11.4 km | 288 m Ascent | 8.5 Naismith miles | Mary Pickstone & Valerie Eccles
Our last three walks have been further afield – great for exploring areas we might be less familiar with, but not so convenient when we need a walk on the spur of the moment. This week’s route is much closer to home and is in an area that we are all very familiar with – the Lune Valley.
As well as being convenient, this walk has much to offer: We start at a wildflower meadow within the grounds of the Hermitage Estate, and head toward Halton Green before diverting through Higher Wood to get to Halton Park. A path through the edge of Wham Wood takes us to Hawkshead and a path along the top of the ridge to Aughton. This lovely village offers a good place to enjoy lunch, before we press on back down to the riverside at Aughton Barns. From there a riverside path takes us through Aughton Woods Nature Reserve before passing the spectacular waterworks bridge as we head back to our starting point.
7.1 miles | 11.4 km | 232 m Ascent | 8.2 Naismith miles | Glyn Barnes
How many Dales are there in the Yorkshire Dales? It sounds like it ought to be an easy question, but it’s not. There is ambiguity about the area covered – is it just the National Park, or the wider area? There is also ambiguity about what a Dale is - is it anywhere where the name ends in Dale or is it a reference to the typical river valley geography? And what do we do where one valley has more than one name along its length - does that count twice?
When we start to list them, some are top of all our lists; Ribblesdale, Wensleydale, and Swaledale for example. Others are rarely mentioned, and Coverdale falls into that category.
In order to find out whether Coverdale’s lack of recognition is simply because it’s dull, we went for a walk from Horsehouse to Carlton and back exploring Swineside Moor and the meadows along the side of the River Cover. What we found was a lovely unspoiled area that is much quieter than the better known dales. So, let’s keep it that way – don’t tell anyone about this under-explored gem.
5.4 miles | 8.8 km | 219 m Ascent | 6.5 Naismith miles | Kate Rowe / Kate Butcher
All of the towns and villages in our area are attractive places to live, and just about all of them make a good starting point for a walk. One of the ways in which Bentham stands head and shoulders above the others however is that it has a railway station, making walks based on a combination of rail travel and walking between stations particularly attractive.
This excellent walk draws on that strength: We take the train from Bentham just one stop to Wennington, then take a route back that gives us great views of Ingleborough and Tatham Fells along the way.
Being lucky with the weather always helps make a walk seem particularly attractive, and as the pictures show, we were indeed fortuitous this time, enjoying bright sunshine and early signs of spring.
5.3 miles | 8.5 km | 147 m Ascent | 6.0 Naismith miles | Peter Lennard
In July 2024, we enjoyed a great walk from Rathmell up to Whelp Stone Crag, and that walk impressed on us that walking in and around Rathmell had a number of attractions:
The area is much less busy than the “honeypot” villages within the national park, and there are great views across the Ribble Valley to Settle and Langcliffe with Pen-y-Ghent in the distance. Add to this convenient parking and a short travel distance from Bentham, and Rathmell clearly has much to offer.
It's also an attractive village in its own right with some interesting history. The walk includes an ancient packhorse bridge that would not be out of place on any Yorkshire Dales calendar, and toward the end we get to see llamas and alpacas.
5.9 miles | 9.5 km | 173 m Ascent | 6.8 Naismith miles | Mary Taylor
Over the last couple of walks, we have started to see the first signs of spring – with snowdrops, daffodils, and hazel catkins starting to emerge. The optimistic feeling that the winter might be releasing its grip was confirmed on this excellent local walk: We enjoyed brilliant sunshine as we walked from Melling over to Wrayton, and then on to the banks of the river Greta, following it down to its confluence with the Lune.
The original intention was to continue down the Lune and loop back to Melling via farm lanes. However, the recent rains made this route impassible, so our ever-resourceful leader provided an alternate route back: We returned to Wrayton as per the outbound walk, then took a path over the hill by Catgill Barn and down to the edge of Wennington Hall. A brief stretch on the road then took us to Lodge farm where we took a path that over the top of the Melling railway tunnel indulging in some industrial archaeology and then back into Melling.
6.0 miles | 9.7 km | 164m Ascent | 6.8 Naismith miles | Don Cartledge
Picking a walking route during the winter presents challenges that don’t apply during the summer: Travelling time to the start of the walk eats into the available daylight, and so shorter more local routes are particularly attractive.
This week’s walk fits that description . . . but that sells it short: This compact route right on our doorstep offers great views, has a cafe on the route, visits a couple of idyllic dales villages, and has opportunities to either extend the route up onto the slopes of Ingleborough or onward into Ingleton. You could also shorten it in a couple of places if time is pressing.
The only downside is that you need to like stiles for this one – there are plenty of them.
7.4 miles | 11.9 km | 203 m Ascent | 8.4 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Bentham Footpath Group has visited the Cartmel Peninsula a number of times: It’s a great place to start a walk and offers a good choice of routes. We could head east onto Hampsfell with cracking views over the Kent Estuary and into Morecambe Bay, or as we do on this walk, west onto the ridge at Ellerside with equally good views across the Levens Estuary and over to the Lakeland fells. Along the way we have the opportunity to explore Cartmel Village, potentially adding a visit to the Priory and Cartmel Park racecourse, before heading through Park Wood, and scaling Ellerside where from the top of a ridge running along the side of the estuary, we have great views over to Ulverston. Our return is south past How Barrow, then down to Low Bank Side where we pick up a lane back to the racecourse tracking the river Eea.
7.4 miles | 11.9 km | 267 m Ascent | 8.7 Naismith miles | Kate Rowe / Kate Butcher
Just one week on from a walk where the weather worked against us, we have a little more luck: This walk, like last week’s offers great views, but this time we got to enjoy them, along with interesting diversions on the way round. These include Cromwell’s bridge (which we drive past just before the start of the walk), the Shireburn alms-houses, The Ribble Jubilee Trail, Greengore - a buttressed hunting lodge once used by Henry VII, the fell top forestry path at Longridge Fell, a lunch break with jaw dropping views over to Parlick and Fair Snape Fell, Bleak House, sculptures of horses, the original site of the alms-houses – yes they were moved, and the manicured grounds of the famous Stonyhurst College. And as a bonus we got a free organ recital hearing the majesty of Widor’s Toccata. It’s only January, but this must be a candidate for best walk of the year.
7.2 miles | 11.7 km | 296 m Ascent | 8.7 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
We try very hard when we design our walks: We need to find starting points with suitable parking, and we need to find walks that offer a wide variety of interests on the way round. We need to think about where we can stop for breaks, and we need to think about whether changing conditions might make the route impassible – ideally, with an alternative if that’s the case. Finally, we like to offer great views – because that after all is such a big part of why we go walking in this wonderful landscape.
What we can’t do unfortunately is turn off the fog. So, today’s walk does have brilliant views . . . it’s just that they were hidden by mist and so don’t show on the pictures. Follow the route on a better day and we promise you there’s a lot to see.
6.8miles | 10.9 km | 279 m Ascent | 8.2 Naismith miles | Mary & Kate Taylor
January can be a great time of the year to go walking, but as we have seen over the last couple of weeks, snow and ice can make some routes inaccessible or unsafe. No such problems this week, and it’s great to get back to our published programme.
We start at Gearstones and then set out up the Cam Road on the Dales Way, as far as Cam End where we pick up the Pennine Bridleway which we follow down to the lovely Ling Gill bridge, and the nearby Ling Gill nature reserve. The bridleway contours around Cave Hill to High Birkwith, where we take the Ribble Way over to God’s Bridge, then Nether Lodge, before crossing Thorns Moss on the way back to Gearstones.
5.2 miles | 8.4 km | 171 m Ascent | 6.1 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
The walk for January 9th was scheduled to be at Winster. However, prolonged freezing conditions made the minor roads in that area a significant black ice risk.
We therefore postponed that walk and substituted a local stroll in and around Bentham.
This is the second week in a row that icy conditions have triggered a change of plan, and just as last week, we see this as an opportunity rather than a problem: Bentham is a great place to live, and a great place to walk. The route we present here stands comparison with any of our more distant routes and reminds us how lucky we are to live here.
4.9 miles | 8.0 km | 166 m Ascent | 5.8 Naismith miles | George Sheridan
This walk took place on January 3rd 2025, and is not the route originally scheduled - icy conditions on the morning meant that the drive to Dunsop Bridge over the Slaidburn Road was considered too dangerous. We therefore substituted a local walk largely based on the Bentham Heritage Trails: The Under Totridge from Dunsop Bridge walk will be re-scheduled.
The walk may have been planned at short notice, but it still has much to offer: Easy access from Bentham, Great views along the Wenning Valley, information boards detailing local history, crisp crunchy ice, riverside sections, and numerous benches to take a break. What a great place to live.
4.2 miles | 6.7 km | 123 m Ascent | 4.8 Naismith miles | Mary Pickstone & Valerie Eccles
The days between Christmas and New Year – referred to by one group member as “Twixtmass” - are filled with leftovers, repeats of TV programmes that were lack-lustre the first time round, and a general confusion about what day it really is.
Bentham Footpath Group offers its members a welcome escape from all this by organising a Christmas Walk every year. Our aim is to get out, get some fresh air, and show off those new boots / kit that Santa brought. We generally aim for a short and easy walk, to encourage a good turnout, and end at a pub or café where we share lunch - the recently re-opened Punch Bowl at Low Bentham was our host this year.
7.2 miles | 11.6 km | 212m Ascent | 8.2 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Bentham Footpath Group is lucky enough to have good access to the Yorkshire Dales, The South Lakes and the Forest of Bowland, and it’s to the latter that we head for this walk.
It might be tempting to assume that a walk in the forest would involve a lot of time spent amongst the trees. Not necessarily so, as the name Forest of Bowland, was first applied when medieval Royal hunting forests were established - the title ‘forest’ refers here to hunting rights, and not to a large expanse of woodland, as we would interpret it today.
From the attractive village of Gisburn, we loop out round Gisburne Park, before following Stock Beck upstream to Horton, and then Bracewell. We have a quick look at the lovely church of St Michaels, then head west across farmland to Sullside Hill, before strolling back down into Gisburn, via another ancient church – St Mary the Virgin.
6.9 miles | 11.1 km | 369 m Ascent | 8.8 Naismith miles | Peter Lennard
Offering interesting walks on as frequent a basis as we do within the Bentham Footpath Group is a challenge. One which we compound for ourselves by trying to ensure that everything we do is new to the group. Every now and again though, we complete a walk that is so good we think it’s worth revisiting with a minor variation.
So, this is a slight reworking of our walk from 6th May 2022, taking a different route through the mine workings at Benfoot Brow. This simple change makes the walk sightly shorter and a little easier, making it more suitable for the shorter winter days.
It still includes the wonderful climb up the Dib, along with an alternate gentler route to the fantastic limestone pavement adjacent to the Bycliffe Road. We still walk the Conistone Turf Road, via Copplestone Gate to see the bleak spoil tips from past lead mining, before taking in Swinber Scar, Conistone Pie and St Mary’s church in Conistone. Take the GPS for both versions and you can decide which walk to follow as the day unfolds.
5.3 miles | 8.5 km | 10 m Ascent | 5.3Naismith miles | Kate Rowe / Kate Butcher
In an inspired piece of themed programming, our last five walks have all shared a common feature –significant sections walking alongside water. This week we make that a run of six using the Leeds and Liverpool Canal as our waterway.
Canal walking is always interesting, with plenty of industrial heritage to see, and as a bonus, they tend to be gentle walks with no navigational challenge, making them an ideal easy stroll requiring little preparation. The potential downside is that they often involve turning round and re-walking the same route to get back to the start, but we have a solution to that: We park in Gargrave, then take a bus to Skipton and walk back making this a linear walk. Both Skipton and Gargrave are interesting places to visit with opportunities for shopping, eating and drinking, so this is a walk that could easily be incorporated into a longer day out.
6.8 miles | 10.9 km | 151 m Ascent | 7.5 Naismith miles | Valerie Eccles & Mary Pickstone
Last week’s walk took us to Wensleydale where we noted that everyone loves a riverside walk, and this week we test that theory with another riverside ramble – this time much closer to home.
We start from Kirkby Lonsdale, a place that Bentham Footpath Group have used as a starting point many times. Our route takes us west to Wood End, then along a quiet path down to Sellet Mill. We then stroll over to Sellet Hall and follow Hosticle Lane through Hag Wood until we get to Whittington. We spend some time at the lovely church there before heading down to the river Lune via Coneygarth Lane, and finally return via a riverside path directly to Kirkby.
We conclude that riverside walks are indeed lovely. This is a great walk, and other than a couple of stretches that can be wet and muddy after heavy rain, is easy going.
6.5 miles | 10.4 km | 284 m Ascent | 7.9 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
Take a look at any tourist guide to the Yorkshire Dales and they all feature lovely bright midsummer days.
We do get some of those days, and they are indeed special, but perhaps even better are those really crisp wintery days when the ground is hard, the air is crystal clear and the views uninterrupted by haze.
This walk is not one that only works in winter through. Key attractions are Askrigg, the original and true All Creatures Great and Small village, a couple of water mills, long lost dams, waterfalls, perfect views of the Cam High Road, a unique chapel, a couple of fortified houses, a riverside stroll, a brief diversion to a lovely Dales village, magical stepping stones, and finally a visit to a really good café and cake shop.
6.8 miles | 11.0 km | 237 m Ascent | 8.0 Naismith miles | Kate Rowe / Kate Butcher
Windermere is the nearest of the major lakes in the lake District, so it’s not surprising that we have started a number of walks in this area. However, a quick glance at our website shows that we have so far stayed to the east of the lake.
This excellent walk shows that that the Western side of Windermere is well worth visiting, and we offer an easy route starting from Finsthwaite, that runs in a figure of eight shape, offering the opportunity to divide it into two shorter trips – of about equal length.
The first half is a climb through ancient woodland at Bell Intake up to High Dam before returning to Finsthwaite via High Stott Park. The second half takes a path through fields and then woodland to Newby Bridge before strolling next to the railway up to Lakeside. From there we take a path through Great Knott Wood back to Finsthwaite.
7.3 miles | 11.8 km | 254 m Ascent | 8.6 Naismith miles | Rick Clapham
Staveley has long been a favourite of Bentham Footpath Group – this is the third time we have visited in the time we have been documenting our walks on our website, but a review of old program cards shows that we have visited here at least once a year for as long as the group has existed.
A quick glance at the gallery for todays’ walk explains why we keep coming back – the views are stunning, and the varied landscape provides a rich mixture of flora and fauna. Add a few fascinating buildings, and even an opportunity to go shopping, along with riverside sections featuring weirs and waterfalls, and we create a walk that’s too good to miss. Our members clearly think so, as evidenced by the great turn out. Lovely autumn sunshine helps, but this is a great walk at any time of the year.
6.3miles | 10.2 km | 217 m Ascent | 7.4 Naismith miles | Terri Kwiecinska
People often associate Sedbergh with the Howgills and steep climbs such as Cautley Spout, Winder or The Calf. These are indeed great options, but there are gentler walks from Sedbergh, and that’s what we offer here.
We start in the town centre and then take a route past the parish church to Birks, then walk over flat fields to the historic Friends Meeting House at Brigflatts. We backtrack slightly and take a disused railway line to the river Rawthey which we follow upstream to a footbridge at Birks. We cross this and then head across a golf course to the rather lovely Abbot Holme Bridge, then follow the Dee upstream to Dent Foot Chapel and Rash Bridge. From there we cross and at Rash climb through a couple of fields to pick up the Dales Way into Millthrop, before crossing the Rawthey again and returning to Sedbergh. Overall then we get to see lots of the Howgills in their autumnal colours without needing to actually climb them.