Caton

Lune Bridges

7.0 miles | 11.3 km | 140 m Ascent | 7.7 Naismith miles | Graham Cooper
Driving through Caton on the A683 is a frequent occurrence for those of us luck enough to live in or around Bentham, and so it’s easy to forget that Caton is a great place to start a walk.
It offers easy access to the river Lune, and the Millenium Park path, or as our Claughton or Annas Ghyll Walks showed, the moors above Brookhouse.
For this walk, we again start at Bull Beck and then take riverside paths down the Lune to the Crook O’Lune bridge before returning on the other side of the river using the millennium way. The route is a figure of 8 shape so there’s an obvious opportunity to split it into two shorter walks if time is pressing or you want to explore Halton or kill time lazing by the river.

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Claughton

7.5 miles | 12.1 km | 274 m Ascent | 8.9 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
The road journey form Bentham to Lancaster is relatively mundane, making it easy to forget that that there are good walks on either side of the main road – as this excellent route shows. We start from the Bull Beck parking area on the A683 just east of Caton, then walk over fields to Brookhouse. A quiet country road takes us up to the wind farm at Caton Moor, with fantastic views across the valley and Morecambe Bay, before we head back down to the main road passing the quarries that feed the Claughton Brick works. We then cross the road and pass more evidence of the area’s railway history before coming through fields at the back of the brickworks to follow the banks of the Lune back to Bull Beck.
We list this walk as a “moderate” challenge, simply because it’s just over our 12km threshold. The route is generally quite easy and there are relatively few stiles, so if you normally prefer “easy” walks, don’t discount this one.

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Littledale & Caton

6.1 miles | 9.9 km | 313 m Ascent | 7.7 Naismith miles | Mary & Kate Taylor
Bentham is a great place to live – particularly for those who like walking: We have access to the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, and as we see in this walk, the Forest of Bowland.
Of that trio, the Forest of Bowland is the least visited, so it’s possible to find a quiet walk with unspoiled countryside, without seeing anyone else all day.
This easy, but interest-filled walk starts from a free car park at Little Cragg outside Brookhouse. The high farmland here offers great views over Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland Fells, before we drop down and cross the Udale Bridge, then climbing up to Crossgill with Caton Moor on our left and Littledale Hall on our right.
We head up one side of the valley at high level and then descend to the river (Closegill Beck) to return at low level, before exploring the woodlands next to the Hall and then heading back via Littledale and Sweet Beck to Little Cragg.

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Bull Beck and Annas Ghyll

5.3 miles | 8.5 km | 228 m Ascent | 6.4 Naismith miles | Don Cartledge
An easy walk takes us out from Bull Beck car park down the Millennium park way to Caton where we head up toward Brookhouse Methodist Church. Here we take a path over fields toward Gresgarth Hall, before taking a path over open fields to a green lane and the Littledale Road.
A short road section takes us to Annas Ghyll where we crest the ridge and walk down to Caton Green Road. A path through housing takes back into open fields and we return to the A683 and Bull Beck car park

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