Horton

Bracewell from Gisburn

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.

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Far Moor Bridge and Ribblesdale

7.8 miles | 12.6km | 297 m Ascent | 9.3 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
Horton in Ribblesdale is a great place to start a walk, and the “three peaks” are the big draw with Pen-y-Ghent an obvious choice, as is the Sulber Nick route over to Ingleborough.
Both are good walks, but there is much else to see in this area, as we show with a route including a tarn, the stunning Far Moor Bridge, disappearing rivers, atmospheric lime kilns, a National Nature Reserve, extensive limestone pavement, and vast quarries, all of which is accessible via the Settle to Carlisle railway. What more could you want? A blue lagoon? – well there was one until recently, and we can offer pictorial evidence.

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Pen-y-ghent

6.8 miles | 11.0 km | 617 m Ascent | 9.9 Naismith miles | Peter Lennard
Pen-y-ghent is the smallest of the “three peaks” at 694m (2277ft).
This circular walk goes anticlockwise so that we tackle the steep ascent at the South end of the hill first followed by a gentler downhill return with views over to Horton, Ingleborough, and Hull Pot.
BFG walks are rated based on a combination of distance and ascent, and this one is quite short and so is classified as “easy”. Be aware through, that the climb to the peak is steep and rocky, so care is needed.

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Horton in Ribblesdale

9.6 miles | 15.5 km | 454 m Ascent | 11.9 Naismith miles | Sue King
We start in Horton and then walk up to the station where we cross the lines and take the path up to Sulber Nick. Here we turn right along the Pennine Bridleway for a while, but when the bridleway heads East toward the road, we press on North to the entrance to Alum Pot and then head right to take the lane down into Selside.
From Selside we turn left and head over to High Birkwith, crossing the upper reaches of the Ribble, to reconnect with the Pennine Bridleway, which takes us up toward Old Ing. Before we get that far though, we take a sharp right to pick up a path heading South along the contours of Horton Moor.
This eventually comes down to a quiet lane at New Houses which we follow back to Horton.

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