Low Tatham church
to
Melling and back
27th June 2025
3.5 miles / 5.7 km
151 m ascent
Easy
4.3 Naismith miles
Low Tatham church
Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
Most of the walks we do are around 7 miles in length. They are all great walks but given that we tend to average around 2mph when we factor in time for pausing to enjoy the view, we need to set aside at least four hours to enjoy them.
So that leaves a gap for the evening walk where we have a couple of free hours and want to fill them with something more challenging than a stroll around the village or watching another failed politician eating unhygienic bits of a kangaroo in the jungle.
This excellent shorter walk fits the bill perfectly: It’s easy and short enough to undertake in the evening, and close enough to home to make a last minute decision viable.
Does short and easy inevitably mean dull though? No, of course, not – you can rely on our expert walk creators to pull together a route that includes great views, interesting landscapes, a rare (for here) taste of arable farming, and some local history, all with easy parking and even a well rated pub close to the end.
Step-by-Step
We start at the church of St James the Less in Low Tatham – this has a large car park which is available for all to use. We did not notice an honesty box for parking, but as there are extensive repair works at the church in progress at the moment, and some contractor cabins and materials are stored in the car park, it may be that it is currently obscured or that one is soon to be provided. If so – please give generously, and please don’t schedule a walk at a time when your parking would present problems to church users.
To find St James, take the B6480 from Bentham toward Wray, and then 200m after the Tatham Bridge Inn, look for a small road on the right. This is Monks Gate and once over the old railway line, you will see St James’ ahead. If you are using paper maps for navigation, the OS grid reference is SD60636938, or if you prefer Satnav, try LA2 8NH as a postcode. The corresponding What-3-Words tag is disprove.hems.tutored
Under normal circumstances, having parked in the church car park we would have had a look inside the church, and if possible, left a contribution, but at the time of our visit, extensive roof repairs were underway. In the interim, the church website shows some excellent pictures of the church and outlines it’s long and interesting history. Alternatively, click here to see a wikipedia article about the church.
An important point to note here is that having failed to spot a single Paley and Austin church on recent walks, we are back on familiar territory here: In 1885–87 the Lancaster architects added a saddleback roof to the tower. They also carried out an extensive restoration which included adding an organ loft and a vestry, repairing walls, adding windows, fittings and a floor, and removing the ceiling.
From the church car park, we head up Monks Gate, passing the church and the old rectory before climbing toward a sharp bend in the road where we see a sign for Raw Ridding House.
Curiously, on the OS map the spelling is different – the OS use Riding. Given that the origin of Ridding in most place names indicates a clearing, often of woodland, or an area of cleared land, we would side with the residents on this one. The word derives from the Old English word “rydding,” which essentially means getting rid of the trees. It is found in many place names, sometimes appearing as “ridding,” “riddings,” or with other variations. It is most common in Yorkshire and Cumbria.
We don’t take the lane to the house though – instead we pick up a path to the left of the field boundary and up the right hand side of the field. The OS map shows us crossing a fence line after 50m or so, but in practice this has long since disappeared so just head uphill using a prominent tree as a landmark.
We tend to think of the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland as livestock farming areas, but the fertile soil here is suitable for arable crops, and at the time of our walk, wheat was growing.
As for any crop – including meadow land which is harvested as grass for hay and silage, please walk in single file using existing tracks whenever possible to minimize crop damage.
300m after leaving Monks Gate, we arrive at the top of a small hill and see Lodge Farm ahead of us – this is recognisable by having a prominent telecoms tower to the right of the farm. We head toward the left hand side of the farm buildings and take the metal gate to enter the farmyard. As ever take care within farmyards as heavy vehicle movements are a possibility – although on the day of our walk, the heaviest vehicle moving was a calf pram.
At the farmyard, we pick up a roadway that heads northeast toward Lodge Lane. We follow this for about 400m, until we cross a cattle grid, at which point we can see clear spoil heaps to both the right and left which are associated with the construction of the Melling railway tunnel which runs underground ahead of us.
This is an area we have explored before on our Melling Circular Walk, although on that occasion we approached Lodge Farm from the other side. To read more about the railway tunnel and the Furness and Midland Joint Railway, please visit that page on our website.
Strictly speaking the right of way continues down the farm track for 100m beyond the cattle grid then turns hard left to approach a stile at the end of the tree line. As there were no crops growing here, we took a more direct line, enjoying the views of Ingleborough and Leck Fell along the way.
We cross that stile (or the use the adjacent gate) and then head northwest through grassland down to another wheat field ahead. Between the rough pasture we have been walking and the wheat there is a farm track, and once we arrive there we go left to the end of the wheat and then follow a path down the side of it for 100m to find a pair of stiles that take us into the adjacent field, crossing a minor beck as we go.
We now need to head sharp right following the field boundary downhill to find a gate in the corner of the meadow, where we access the main road down into Melling – or Melling-with-Wrayton to use its Sunday best name. To read more about Melling, click . . .
We walk left and downhill at the road and just 200m later arrive at the junction with the A683. To our left here is the church of St Wilfred – and we pause here to have a brief look around the church grounds.
The earliest fabric in the church dates from around 1300 or earlier but, as it is near the earthworks of a motte and bailey castle, it is possible that a church has been present on the site since the 10th century. Most of what we see now dates from the late 15th century, with a significant extension and restoration in 1763 when the clerestory was added. In 1891 a further restoration was carried out by our favourite Lancaster architects Paley and Austin – this included re-seating the church, at a cost of £1,100 (equivalent to £150,000 in modern money).
The motte and bailey castle that once stood just behind the church is accessible form the back of the churchyard – although in truth there is relatively little to see for to untrained eye.
We exit the church grounds through the gate and return to the main road walking southwest toward Hornby on the pavement. Opposite us is Melling Village Hall, and it’s worth crossing to look at the lovely millennium cobble project that forms a welcoming entrance to the hall.
No more than 50m down the road we spot Green Close Studios on our left and take the footpath just before this. As that track rises look to the left as you may well see common spotted orchids growing here.
We have a short but rather steep climb ahead of us before the slope becomes gentler, giving us clear sight of a fallen tree ahead – we use this as our next landmark. We continue south through two more fields and see the communications tower at Lodge Farm slightly to our left.
If we look at the OS map here it shows the right of way being back to the farm and then hard right. However, on the ground there is a clear and long standing way-marker at the gate showing a path diagonally through a pasture. Given the presence of that marker, the visible signs of a well-used path on the ground and the absence of crops in the field we opted to take the shorter route across the diagonal.
Once we have crossed this field, we arrive at a metal gate which gives us access to a track – we follow this track for a while now as it heads south to run alongside a steep dell – where a beck runs out of our sight.
We soon approach a farm, and again, there is a difference between the right of way shown on the OS Map and the reality on the ground: The map shows a path between farm buildings and then through the farm yard. In reality, there is a clearer, safer and less intrusive route around the edge of the farm – keeping the buildings to our right – which brings us round the front of the farm and down to a well made road where we double back on ourselves. We follow the farm access road for the next 250m to arrive back at the sign for Raw Ridding House – and from there we simply walk downhill, past the church and back to the car park.
If an evening walk has made you thirsty, then the Tatham Bridge Inn is just a few minutes away – this popular local pub has a great reputation for good quality beer and food.
