Walking

Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has a varied and interesting past. In the early 1800’s the Park was a quarr y from which the stone was used for local buildings and major developments in Lancashire, such as The Harris Museum and the Railway
Station in Preston.

Located in the North East corner of Lancashire and within the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Gisburn Forest offers fantastic mountain biking with beautiful views. Glide easily along mellow trail by Bottoms Beck, twist and shout through Park Wood, dance with your bike down Hully Gully or grit your teeth and rush down the Bigfoot slab – everyone should find something that will make them grin.

The Ribble Valley Sculpture Trail was launched in 1993. The first of its kind to be established in Lancashire, which now includes over 20 permanent works of art. The trail travels through Brungerley Park and Cross Hill Quarry, a local nature reserve managed by the Lancashire Wildlife trust, only a mile from Clitheroe town centre.

Why not have a stroll from Clitheroe to the Ribble Valley Sculpture Trail.  Try a spot of lunch from The Emporium and then visit the Platform Gallery.

Follow in the footsteps of J.R.R Tolkien and discover the landscape that inspired Tolkien’s ‘Middle Earth’. Walk through the deep wooded valleys and lazy riverside banks whose names have found their
way into his famous ‘Lord of the Rings’
trilogy. This walk starts and fi nishes at The Shireburn Arms.

All roads lead to Chipping! And upon entering this picturesque village, you'll soon see why it has been named Winner of Britain in Bloom's Gold Medal Award & Best Village Award 2009.

On the slopes of the River Loud, you'll learn that in Medieval times you would have found no less than five water mills sighted along Chipping beck.

This walk takes in some of the finest parkland scenery in the Forest of Bowland and the village of Bolton by Bowland is itself one of the prettiest and best preserved villages in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Chatburn at the foot of Pendle takes its name from one of the most distinguished characters of Anglo-Saxon times, St Chad or St Ceadda.

Chatburn itself occupies a beautiful position in a hollow between two ridges.

This walks leads from Edisford bridge to Brungerley Bridge.

This walk leads from Brungerley Bridge to Grindleton Bridge via West Bradford bridge.

This walk leads from Edisford Bridge to Little Mitton.

This walk leads from the Castle Grounds to Standen Hey Community Woodland.

The village of Downham has hardly changed over the past two centuries. It boasts Elizabethan weavers’ cottages of fine honey-coloured gritstone. Of special interest are the stone carved window frames and the attractive overhanging stone slab porches. The traditional appearance of the village owes itself to the work of the manorial family of Downham, the Asshetons.

Along the course of the walk you will pass Twiston Mill. This was originally a corn mill for the parish but it was converted to a cotton mill in the early 1800s. The mill was owned by the Assheton family, with William Assheton constructing the upper dam to create the reservoir in 1851. Whilst producing cotton the mill employed twenty men, seven women and twenty-two children.

At 557 metres above sea level Pendle Hill does not quite qualify for ‘mountain’ status but nevertheless deserves to be treated with respect
and normal sensible precautions should be taken before attempting the walk. The summit of Pendle is a very exposed place and is invariably much colder and often wetter than the starting part of the walk.

The walk enters the approach to the Trough of Bowland before climbing above the Hodder Valley to follow a route mid way between the valley and the ridge of the Bowland fells above. The final stretch below Wolf Fell is on the edge of moorland which descends through a narrow valley and fields into the village of Chipping.