Train to Wennington,
walk back to Bentham
15th March 2025
5.4 miles / 8.8 km
219 m ascent
Easy
6.5 Naismith miles
Train to Wennington,
Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
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.
Step-by-Step
We start at Bentham Railway station, taking the train toward Morecambe for just one stop alighting at Wennington, before walking back. In practice then, this is a Wennington to Bentham linear route and would work equally well in reverse. There is parking available for rail users at both stations, and ample opportunities enjoy local pubs and cafes in both Low and High Bentham, so if you wanted to combine the walk with a pub lunch pick your direction and start time to match. If you are using Satnav to find the stations, Bentham’s is on Station Road Bentham LA2 7LF, whilst Wennington’s is on the B6480 with postcode LA2 8PB.
Services between the stations are operated by Northern Rail, and up to date timetable information can be found on their website.
You can find out more about the rail service by clicking . . .
Once at Wennington station we cross the pedestrian bridge and exit the station via the car park entrance, to turn left onto the B6480. Our route does not spend time in Wennington itself – but if you want to read more about the village, click . . .
Just 20m ahead we take a minor road on the left which re-crosses the railway and rises steeply. As we do so, you will notice a footpath sign on the left – indicating a path back along the side of the railway line. We don’t take this today, but it is an alternate route back to Bentham, so if you enjoy this walk but wish it were twice as long, the opportunity to include that path in a circular route is obvious.
We continue up the minor road (called Old Moor Road) for about 100m – it’s steep so it may feel like more though, until we see a steel gate on the right with a footpath sign. We enter the field here and on a good day have a view over to the church of St James the Less in Lower Tatham. This rather lovely Grade II* listed building is originally Norman, but much of what we see today dates from the 15th century with more modern aspects inevitably added during a Victorian Restoration by Lancaster architects Paley and Austin.
Further over to the right we see a fine country house built in a Scottish Baronial style – this is The Ridding – also the work of Paley, and between the two, though not particularly visible from this viewpoint is Wennington Hall, which we walked closer to on our Melling circular walk. This was once a school but is now an up market hotel and wedding venue. The architect? E G Paley of course.
We now head left through the field, walking south to find an exit onto a minor track about 100m ahead. We join the track at a bend and follow it toward buildings at the top of the hill at Overends. The path goes to the left of the main house and then round to the right with clear route markers along the way to a gate back onto open land taking us south through fields.
We cross a minor beck – so small that it may not even be apparent in mid-summer and here the path forks. The option to the right heads toward the centre of the woodland we see ahead, but we keep left aiming for the left hand edge of the stand of trees where we find a step stile.
We cross and continue South for 200m until we meet a minor road where we go left, with great views of the Tatham Fells ahead of us. We are now on School Hill, and over to our right, and downhill from here we can see the old schoolhouse for which it is named.
We stay on this minor road for 200m until it reaches a junction at Russells Farm. We walk in front of the farmhouse with it’s attractive “IRE 1682” inscribed lintel above the main doorway and then take a bridleway on the left – leaving the road as it heads right.
The bridle way follows the field boundary downhill toward woodland and becomes a broad woodland track which we follow down to a beck in the bottom of the valley – we ford this and then start to climb again before the path levels out as we cross a number of fields roughly following the contour lines.
Toward the far end of the first of these fields we see a slightly dilapidated barn – its worth taking a short diversion to have a look at this as it’s a great example of the kind of building that was until relatively recently used to house cattle over the winter. Inside we see a number of stalls where animals would have been housed, below a mezzanine floor where hay would have been stored.
Although often referred to as “barns” now, they are also known as cow houses (pronounced cow’us) They are particularly associated with Upper Swaledale, but present through the Yorkshire Dales and are typically built on the top side of a meadow field. In summer the meadow grasses were made into hay and the hay stored in one end of the cow’us. The loose hay was dragged up to the cow’us with a horse & sled and then hand forked through up into the ‘hay mew’ end of the building until the space was filled from floor to ceiling.
Two or three cows would over-winter here, and twice a day the farmer went to each cow’us, un-fastened his stock so that they could go outside to drink. In the meantime, he mucked-out the stalls and dropped hay from the hay mew into racks where the cows stood. When the hay racks were full the cows walked themselves back into the cowhouse without fuss and stood ready to be tied up till the next visit in late afternoon.
The path continues through three more fields heading consistently southeast, down to a beck which we cross, and then steeply uphill toward buildings at Ashley’s Farm. Once a working farm this is now a collection of attractive houses. There is an interesting inscription that attributes the work of rescuing the original farm buildings from dereliction to one David E Howarth. A job well done.
Our path goes between the two buildings we see as we approach and then heads right climbing up to a road, where we go left. This is Long Lane, which becomes Eskew Lane, as it arrives at Low Bentham. We don’t want a road walk though, so we look for a more scenic route.
So, we stay on the road for just 50m, and as it bears right, we locate a footpath leaving on the left and heading down toward the same beck that we forded a short while ago. Ahead of us now and dominating the view for much of the return journey, we have a great view of Ingleborough. As we arrive at the beck, we are treated to a wooden bridge gated at both ends, and just beyond that we see a finger post showing the crossing of two paths.
We go right and exit onto a track here, then head left toward whitewashed farm buildings – this is Greenside. The OS map indicates that there is a right of way through the farmyard to continue northwest through fields, but it also shows a path through the gate ahead then bearing right, behind the buildings. We recommend the second option as it feels less intrusive and as even the most carefully managed farmyards can also present hazards from farm vehicles and livestock this seems like the safer option.
The route now continues northeast through a broad field heading for a cluster of buildings at Hunters Barn – about 500m from Greenside.
We pick up an access lane and head right between the buildings until we get to a metalled road, where we head left and then almost immediately right onto another marked path which heads downhill along a slightly boggy path through Hazel bushes. Once clear of these we see a patch of woodland head and take a line along the edge of it as we head north using a very distinctive oak tree as our next landmark. This clearly blew over, or was deliberately toppled many years ago, but has recovered such that the main bough now runs horizontally with several new trees growing from it.
We continue north keeping the woodland to our left until we reach a track – this is the access track for Robert Hall, which we passed on our Furnessford & Hindburn Bridges walk. We cross the track, and continue sightly right, heading toward woodland at the edge of the River Wenning. As we arrive at the woodland, we see a stile and this takes us onto a path down through the woods, and lots of wild garlic, to the riverside. On the opposite side of the Wenning here is Cedar House School, an independent specialist day and residential school, providing high quality education and care for boys and girls exhibiting Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs, alongside a range of other associated conditions.
We follow the path up to the metalled road (Eskew Lane) and turn left toward Low Bentham. If you fancied a break here, there are options for pubs – The Punch Bowl Hotel at the bottom of Eskew Lane or The Sundial in the centre of Low Bentham. We opted to press on and after just 100m on Eskew Lane took the path on the right over to Clouds Bank on Mill Lane.
We cross Mill Lane and pick up the riverside path with the Wenning to our left as we head back to High Bentham. Woth noting as we head upstream are the weirs and fish ladders that were intended to allow fish safe page upstream whilst allow the management of a water supply – originally to silk mills in Low Bentham, but more recently to a trout farm.
Our next landmark is “Dorothy’s seat” – a memorial bench which remembers Dorothy Stubbs, a much admired member of Bentham Footpath Group over many years. This is great place to stop and take a break.
For the final part of the route, we cross the small bridge – noting the Wenning Oak and the small waterfall to our left and then follow the hedge line to the stile and gate into the caravan park.
Once at the metalled road through the park, we head right, and then just past the amenities building take the path across to a gap in the wall where we head to the left of the reception building before continuing to follow the river upstream.
Finally, we exit the caravan park and turn left to head back to the station where the walk ends.
