Countrygoer Walks in the Forest of Bowland

Pendle Beacon

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Walk Description

  1. From the bus station walk up through the village past Barley Mow restaurant tea room and Meadow Bank Farm to where a path, signed the Pendle Way (look for yellow witch logo) and Pendle Hill Circular Walk leads off to the left , starting as a gravel path alongside the stream. This follows a shallow valley towards a footbridge, turning sharp right over the bridge into the lane.
  2. Left in the lane towards a white house, Ings End, going right at the fork below the house, but right again behind the house on what soon becomes a cobbled way. Keep following the Pendle Hill Circular Walk signs, now following the stream and fence uphill, to Brown House, a gentrified farm. Follow the clear waymarked path right here towards Ing Head Farm, then sharp left after 20 metres through a gate.
  3. A steady climb now across an open field, bearing right up and along side a wall towards another farm, Pendle House. The path goes round and behind the farm before joining a steep, stepped and cobbled way which is incised diagonally up into the hillside.
  4. To avoid the steps, look for the track, left, which zizags up the hillside, before heading southwards, climbing steeply up the shoulder of the hill. This is a long, tough climb, a steady ascent. Take your time to enjoy increasingly rewarding views, back across Barley and the twin Black Moss reservoirs, and across to Barrowford and beyond to the rooftops and chimneys of Colne and Nelson.
  5. After some 700 metres the path reaches the summit plateau and bends sharp right towards the crown of the hill up to a low cairn, in the centre of which is a white concrete triangulation post. This is the summit of Pendle Hill, known as Pendle Beacon.
  6. Continue directly ahead to a wooden ladder stile. Cross and keep in the same direction over open moorland with superb views down to Downham and across the Ribble into Bowland Fells. A little care needed as you cross the brow of the hill meeting another path which comes in from the right before descending to a waymarked post.
  7. The path now curves to the right and then the left in a huge S-shaped formation, following what appears to be an old peat cutters' sledge track. This finally turn sharp left and crosses low, boggy area (boots especially needed for this walk), heading due north gradually descending Downham Moor. This is all across public access land,(permissive path) and the path eventually reaches a stile. Cross the pasture ahead to a kissing gate in the lane to Downham at Lane Head.
  8. The route into Downham is a pleasant, easy to follow public right of way. Go through another wooden kissing gate directly ahead across the lane, which leads to a gravel path through newly planted trees. Ignore the tall guidepost ahead, but bear left across a little gulley - over a stile, past an inviting bench, and another stile (waymarked) on the right. This leads into a long field. The path follows a fence and broad new hedge down hill, to a stile ahead. The hollow on the right now becomes a rocky stream bed, and you follow this all the way to Downham.
  9. To the west of Clay House Farm you cross the farm track, stiles then a new gravel track by trees to a footbridge, then field path still flowing the stream which eventually after more stiles and gates bears gently left to emerge at a narrow lane, by a stone footbridge at the bottom of Downham village. Bear right uphill to the church, just below which, by the telephone box and bench, is the bus stop.

It is no problem to while away an hour or so in Downham if waiting for a bus, (generally every two hours or so) but if you have missed one it's less than a mile of fairly quite lane directly ahead , keeping straight ahead at the cross roads, eventually over the busy A59 Clitheroe by pass into the centre of Chatburn village - bus stops for Clitheroe (C2,280/X80) and Skipton (280/X80) just to the left of the road junction in the village centre.

About this walk

This a classic hill walk over the summit of Pendle Hill, Lancashire's best known peak, at 577 metres above sea level technically a mountain, but also one of the North of England's best known landmarks, a viewpoint and icon as rich in legend and mystery as any hill in England. The overwhelming majority of walkers tackle the hill as a circular walk - but by using public transport, from Barley over to the Ribble Valley, there are a greater variety of views to be enjoyed and the satisfaction of having crossed over an impressive watershed. This walk may only be 5 miles in length but it is a strenuous (350 metres or 1,150 feet) climb, and not to be attempted by the less experienced in low cloud or mist.

Barley

Barley, on the slopes of Pendle Hill - or "Pendleside" as it is known - is a very attractive, compact village to start a walk - there's a small visitor centre (plus toilets) in the car park below the bus station and the popular Pendle Inn attracts many walkers and cyclists.

Pendle Hill

Pendle Hill beacon was one a chain of great beacons which in medieval and Tudor times was used to carry messages of great events - most famously the arrival of the Spanish Armada in 1588 - across England. If you are lucky enough to be on the summit on a clear day, you will enjoy a magnificent panorama of hills across Craven and into the Yorkshire Dales, most notably other beacons at Pinhaw and Ingleborough.

Pendle Hill also features in many of the stories and legends of the Lancashire witches and the notorious show trails that took place in the 17th century. It is now a place of pilgrimage for many lovers of less realistic but more romantic legend, especially around Halloween or Mid summer.

Downham

Downham village is one of the loveliest in Lancashire - you'll see several fine 17th and 18th century stone yeomen's houses and cottages, all beautifully looked after. Downham Hall itself, ancestral home of the Assheton Family, Lords of the Manor, who were around at the times of the witch trials, but who still look after the village in the 21st century with great pride. There is a handsome church on the hillside, from where there are stunning views back towards the massive outline of Pendle Hill, the Post Office which is also a tea shop and the Assheton Arms pub. It has reputedly the best kept toilets (in the stable block near the car park) in the whole of the county - complete with fresh flowers.