Eldroth
12th July 2022
- 4.1 miles / 6.7 km
- 144 m ascent
- Easy
- 4.8 Naismith miles
Jump to . . .Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
During the summer months, Bentham Footpath Group like to offer a few shorter evening walks, and these tend to be local. This excellent walk in and around Eldroth takes no more than 2 -3 hours, even with a brief stop at the quarry, and time for a good few stiles. This route is a good reminder that beautiful walks with fantastic views are always on our doorstep.
We start by heading across farmland toward Lawkland with the panoramic views of Giggleswick Scar. Just before Lawkland Hall we double back and cross the railway before heading back to the Eldroth Road where we cross over to the disused quarry. Good views in all directions can be enjoyed from this high spot.
A short section of walking on generally empty roads then takes us to Accerhill Hall and Howith Farm before we return to the road at Black Bank Farm.
We then take a footpath North at Black Bank to come back under the railway to the village hall where the walk ends.
- Total distance 7.1 km (4.4 miles)
- Total Ascent 144m
- Easy walk
Step-by-Step
The walk starts start at Eldroth Village Hall, where ample parking is available. Payment is via the honesty box, and this excellent local amenity deserves support – so please be generous.
The village hall is on Eldroth Road; Satnav users may prefer to enter the postcode , LA2 8AQ, whilst what-3-words fans can use the tag barbarian.jaws.forgot, and paper map users will find the hall at SD76306529.
Having parked and paid, we turn right out of the carpark and head East along Eldroth Road. Almost immediately we see a lane on our right leading up to a railway bridge – make a note of this, as its our return route, but don’t turn yet – we carry on along the road for a short while.
The road veers gently round to the left and we pass a very attractive property with a footpath clearly signposted – this route leads out over Lawkland Moss and is well worth exploring another time. We carry on though – for no more than 100m – and look for a farm lane on the left, which we follow, keeping the farm buildings on our left.
There are a couple of gates to be negotiated, and we soon find ourselves tracking down what looks like an old green lane with a good quality drystone wall on the left, and the remnants of an earlier one on the right.
There is a path that leaves ours on the left just after the farm, and again this heads out over Lawkland Moss, but we keep right, and at all times should be heading toward Lawkland Hall, or the left hand edge of Lawkland Hall Woods. If you have a compass, the direction to check is Northeast.
Soon, the old wall on the right hand side of the lane disappears and we arrive at a stile in a field corner. There is a drainage ditch here, so expect the area to be boggy in winter – although it was perfectly fine on the evening of our walk.
At this point, a glance at the OS map shows that the public footpath heads along the field boundary, crosses a wall, and then picks up a track toward Lawkland Hall before turning back at a sharp angle to re-enter the same field just a short distance along the wall toward the corner of the woods. You may be tempted to eliminate two sides of this triangle, but our advice is to follow the path – not only are you walking legally, but you get better views of the Hall, Giggleswick Scar, Oxenber Woods and Ingleborough in the distance, as well as the Northern side of Lawkland Hall Woods.
From the stile at the corner of the woods where we re-enter the field we walked earlier, we head South, cross the wall on our left, and then continue uphill on the far side of the wall – noting a rather splendid barn to our left.
We now follow the wall all the way up to the railway which we cross on a bridge before returning to the Eldroth Road, which we cross to take the track down to Willow Tree opposite. Only a few metres down this track through we see a gate on the left and a track leading out over fields toward the quarry. This is the route we take.
We cross a small stream at the bottom of the field and then start climbing toward the quarry, remembering to look back from time to time as the views across Lawkland Moss toward Austwick, Settle, and even as far as Ingleborough are particularly good from here.
The quarry is a good place to take a short break. There are lots of paths here meandering around the quarry, so make sure that when we re-start, we head south along the main (and clearest) path toward the road.
As we meet the road, we take a sharp left and double back on ourselves. We follow this very quiet road for a while now until we arrive at a junction where we take a right – this is signposted as a dead end – but that’s not a problem on foot.
We follow the lane, which diminishes in quality the further we walk, until we see Accerhill Hall ahead of us. We walk to the left of the Hall, ignoring a path heading of at a right angle on the left, and continuing West toward Howith Farm.
As we approach the farm, we find ourselves climbing toward a gate at the side of a modern barn. At the farm there are a choice of paths, so some care is needed: Right would take us back the way we came, left goes to Ravenshaw, whilst the route we want is to the left of the first farmhouse and downhill heading North to Black Bank Road.
At the road we turn left, and ahead us we see that as the road turn left again there is a farm on the right with a footpath sign: We take the path along the front of the farmhouse.
Just beyond the end of the buildings, the path veers right and heads generally North across fields to another farm – this is Rigghead.
Here we keep the buildings on our right and follow the lane down under the railway to meet the Eldroth Road again.
We turn left and see the village hall ahead, where the walk ends.
- Total distance 7.1 km (4.4 miles)
- Total Ascent 144m
- Easy walk
