Walking Lancashire's Highlands

John Lenehan takes the high road through the stunning Trough of Bowland.

THE Forest of Bowland truly deserves its inclusion as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Who cannot be moved by the panoramic view of the high Bowland fells from the Waddington Fell road? It is stunning on a clear day whatever time of year. It is also a deceptive view though as it shows only one side of what is a huge area of land.

As an experiment, open up the West sheet of the OS OL 41 Explorer map and lay it on the floor and you will see that most of the map is taken up by the Forest of Bowland then, turn the map to the East sheet and lay that out and you will see almost half of the map is taken up with this remarkable landscape. Then look at the villages of Bowland and you will see that they are situated only on the edges leaving a central upland area as remote as the Scottish Highlands.

My circular walk takes in part of the only true main road over the fells through the Trough of Bowland and then climbs to the uplands and from there you can see how remote the tops around you are. It also gives a stunning view into the beautiful valley of the Brennand River and a pretty hairy descent into it.

THE WALK

1. Leave the car park and turn right and follow the road past the houses and cross over Dunsop Bridge. Do not take the first right immediately over the bridge but follow the road as it bends left then right and goes uphill.

Note: Dunsop Bridge used to be in Yorkshire but became part of Lancashire in 1974 with local government boundary changes. I wonder what happened to cricket loyalties?

2. Turn next right down the road opposite a footpath sign and follow the road as it passes a row of houses, then to a cattle grid. There is a sign saying ‘Private Road No Access’ by the cattle grid but ignore this, as it is a public footpath. Keep following the road until it reaches a farm and some cottages.