Wenning Ways
from
Low Bentham
1st May 2025
8.0 miles / 12.9 km
203 m ascent
Moderate
9.0 Naismith miles
Wenning Ways
Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
We have enjoyed a number of local walks this spring, and all of them have reminded us just how lucky we are to live here. As the name suggests this excellent walk showcases the Wenning Valley, and visits both Low and High Bentham, making good use of the popular “Heritage Trails”.
How fondly we remember a walk depends to some extent on the weather (perfect on this occasion), and on random events that even the best walk leaders cannot plan. On this walk, it was the chance to watch an otter hunting in the River Wenning near Low Bentham, apparently unconcerned by our presence. You may or may not enjoy that particular treat if you take this walk, but there are lots of other interesting things to see, with industrial archaeology, local history, and great views all included.
Step-by-Step
We start at the (free) car park in Low Bentham. If you are not familiar with the area, then take the B6480 from High Bentham downhill toward Low Bentham. Pass the disused builder’s merchants on the left and keep an eye open for Harley Close on the right. The entrance to the car park is next on the left, 60m away.
If the car park is full, roadside parking back toward High Bentham will be available. Those using Satnav to get to the start, should try LA2 7HD as a postcode, or if your device accepts What-3-Words tags, use tables.tickling.summit, which corresponds to the OS grid reference SD65056932.
You will notice in the car park that there is an access gate to the adjacent railway lines – this needs to be left clear of course, but is a good reminder of an important part of the history of Bentham: We are all familiar with the railway station at High Bentham, and the branding of the line linking Leeds to Lancaster & Morecambe & Heysham Port as The Bentham Line. That’s a modern renaming though – the line was originally part of the North Western Railway (NWR). It was however more commonly known as the “Little” North Western Railway, to distinguish it from the larger London and North Western Railway – although confusingly, both would carry the acronym LNWR.
As well as the station at High Bentham, there was one in Low Bentham – although it only remained open for 3 years, between 1850 and 1853. Nothing remains of it now.
As we emerge from the car park, we head left and continue down hill toward the Victoria Institute and the Sun Dial pub. The Victoria Institute has been a key part of Bentham life since 1905, and following significant refurbishment works over recent years (which include provision of a public toilet to the left hand side of the building) seems set to continue to do so. The Sun Dial is even older (believed to be 1830) and is popular with locals – it’s a simple unpretentious pub with excellent beer and food. The name relates to an original sundial set in the front face of the building, though presumably a more modern timepiece is used for calling last orders.
We continue along the road and cross over so that we can take the bridge over the Wenning on the footpath. You will notice a way marker showing a route up the side of the Wenning just over the bridge – we don’t take that today, but it does feature in our Low Bentham walk.
We carry on under the railway bridge and then see the Punch Bowl pub ahead on the left. We take the lane to the side of the Punch Bowl and head uphill for 100m on Eskew Lane. If we look to the right along this section we can see the elegant road bridge, and the Parish Church of St John the Baptist – well worth taking a diversion to see.
Our next landmark is a stile into fields on the left. We take this and then head south along the fence line to another stile / gate. You will notice a small beck to the right along here and our route follows the line of this beck for a while until we see a large house ahead. This is Cloudsbank, and the path goes to the right of the house and then down toward a gate onto Mill Lane. Strictly speaking the right of way is via a stile just to the right of the gate. The name Mill Lane reflects the fact that there were mills in Low Bentham, just 100m north of here, until 1970.
Almost opposite us as we emerge onto Mill Lane is a signposted path along the banks of the Wenning – we take this and head down toward the weir that once served to provide a water supply to the mill race for the mills (they later converted to steam power, and the original steam engine from Low Bentham mills can still be seen in a display case in Bolton town centre).
The path hugs the bank of the Wenning for the next 500m or so, passing Dorothy’s seat, then approaching the waterfalls at the Wenning Oak. On the day of our walk, the flow in the river was unusually low, so the waterfalls were not particularly impressive – but when the river is in spate, the falls and the almost 90° bend in the river make for an impressive view.
We now need to take a small footbridge over a beck and then a stile into fields – turning left to follow the fence line for a while. We soon arrive at a stile and then steps down to a gate where we access a path into a caravan park.
We turn right here and follow the access road past an amenity block, then go to the left of the reception building to take that path through more caravans – note that we don’t cross the bridge – our path stays to the right of the river. There is a stile into fields at the end of the caravans, and then just ahead we see a choice of routes. The public footpath marked on the OS map is via the access road for the site, but we take a permissive path over a footbridge taking us through much more pleasant woodland at the side of the river. This soon meets the access road again, and we follow that up the junction with Station Road / Thickrash Brow in High Bentham.
Opposite us here is Lanefoot Road, and we walk down here along the side of the river for about 120m until the road turns sharply to the right. As it does so there is a stile on the left taking us onto a well signed path heading east and upstream. The river is not clearly visible at this point, but just 100m later we are back on the bank and take a stile (or adjacent gate) into the next meadow. At this point we can see a farmhouse ahead and to the right – this is Staggarth, and our path goes through the farmyard then uphill toward a meander in the river. At this point you may notice another path crossing ours – that links Shaky Bridge to Branstone Beck, both lovely destinations, but not on our route today, so aim for the opposite corner of the field we have just entered where we find stile and a bench offering great views of Ingleborough.
That bench like others on this walk are part of the Bentham Heritage Trail, and they are engraved with scenes that reflect the flora, fauna, and industrial heritage of the area. This particular bench features the curlew.
After having paused here for a break, we press on uphill for 50m and then note that the path forks. We see a stile ahead and ignore this – that’s a path up to Mewith Lane via Sunny Bank. Instead, we bear left along a well-trodden path using a ruined farmhouse at Dawson Close farm as our target. This interesting building was clearly quite impressive and much loved in its day, with well finished mullioned windows and evidence of a kitchen garden to the side. Photographs from the turn of the century show it being much more intact than it is now, and clearly some harvesting of stone for repairs elsewhere has been ongoing. Just beyond the farmhouse there is an information board as part of the Heritage Trail – this gives further information.
Our path now crosses a beck. This was completely dry at the time of our walk but can need some care in wet weather. We then head across the next field and then down to a stile in the corner slightly to our left. Again, this was bone dry on the day of our walk but can be something of a quagmire in wet weather. Beyond the stile a narrow path continues down to a small wooden footbridge over the beck – we take this and then climb up to a stile in the drystone wall ahead – this is easy to miss and requires some care as it is a little unstable.
From here we stick to the hedge line to the left and follow the path up to a stile onto a minor road – this is Mewith Lane, and we are now at New House, which despite the name is clearly rather old. We stay with Mewith Lane for just 100m and then head left down Brow Lane. Not seen on the day of our walk, but often visible here are attractive highland cattle in the field to the right and sometimes heard rather than seen is music coming from recording studios to the left.
We follow the road down to two bridges – the first over the railway, and then almost immediately the second over the river – this is Greystonegill Bridge. Just before we cross the river bridge though, we take a small, almost hidden path on the right down to the riverbank where we sit for lunch.
We are now halfway round our walk, and our return route is essentially along the opposite side of the Wenning, so we start by returning to the road and crossing the bridge over the river. Once over we see signs for paths on both the right and left – we go left and follow the riverbank downstream, passing another heritage trails information board and another carved bench – an otter on this occasion. After 200m or so we arrive at a drystone wall and notice a stile about 40m to our right. We take that stile and as we climb over, we look slightly to the right to see a gate and a ramped track up to the next field – for this section of our walk we do not have the river in sight despite being never more than 100m away from it.
As we climb the track we spotted from the stile, we find ourselves next to a strip of woodland – the trees are on our left. We follow the edge of this woodland through three fields to arrive at a stile giving access to a very clear path which heads away from the trees and across good quality pasture to a stile in the opposite wall. From here we can see a farmhouse ahead and our path is along the lane just to the right of it.
Once we arrive at the farmhouse we have a choice of routes. There is a path to the left heading down to shaky bridge, and a path heading right up the access road to the Clapham Road. We ignore both of these and carry on round the back of the large cowsheds to take a stile back into open fields.
We now cross two meadows, heading northwest and aiming for houses at Fowgill. The path skirts to the left of these and then enters a green lane. Some 100m down this we arrive at a choice of routes – the fork to the right goes to High Bentham near Lairgill, but we go left and down the side of Cowslip Hill to cross the railway line – with more heritage trail information boards.
Once over the railway we head right and up toward the now re-purposed St Margarets church. This was until 2012 the Parish Church, although it is now residential and includes holiday lets. We walk to the left of the church and then down to Station Road, where we go left and cross to take Wenning Avenue on the right.
We follow this for 200m down to a steel gate back into the caravan park – although we are now on the opposite bank of the Wenning.
A quick glance at the OS map shows that the path is through the caravans – in practice the better route is along the service road at the back of the park until we see a small footpath on the left taking us between hedges and down to the river.
Once at the waterside we head right and follow the riverside path all the way down to Low Bentham, passing the wastewater treatment works, then looping round to pass the Wenning Oak and the falls that we glimpsed earlier in the day.
From there we head down toward what was until recently a trout farm. Since this fell into disuse it seems likely that fish have escaped making this are a good hunting ground for otters. We were exceptionally lucky to come across an otter so intent on catching a trout in the unusually shallow waters that it seemed unconcerned by a group of walkers spectating from just a few metres away. A special moment. We managed to capture some video of this – click one each of these links to see more: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
The path soon arrives at bridge where the adjacent railway crosses an access track to the old fish farm, and here we go right past the back of the Victoria Institute and back to the main road in Low Bentham. We then head right to get back to the car park, where the walk ends.
Bentham Footpath Group walks are graded according to distance and change in elevation. This walk is slightly more than 12km, so is assessed as “moderate”. There are however no difficult sections, and as long as you take your time and take rests, those who normally prefer our “easy” walks should cope well.
