Nature Reserve. You then come close to Leighton Hall and over its gracious parkland, finally returning through Warton Crag Nature Reserve once more.
Start from the spacious quarry car park in Crag Road, just west of Warton village, grid ref 492724. From the entrance take a footpath heading south in the direction of Warton. Continue through birch woodland, with Carnforth seen over the flat land to your right, and go down steps to a kissing gate into Warton Crag Nature Reserve. Walk on along the good footpath beside the wall with the road to your right. At a signposted way turn left to climb a short slope through trees, keeping parallel with the wall to your right.
Leighton Hall and Leighton Moss
Ignoring the gap stile on the right, pass a nature-reserve board and turn left up a well-trodden way marked by a boulder in the centre of the path. Continue upwards on a limestone terrace, moving up to a parallel terrace at an easy pace. Repeat this again and go on to a stile in the fence, which you climb – high above the quarry where you have parked.
Continue for a few metres to take the next path going off right. Climb two little ledges of rock as you go and stride ahead to a sturdy stile. Go over this and ascend the stone ‘staircase’ beyond. At the top go ahead towards higher ground to reach the elevated metal beacon and the trig point a few steps beyond.
Walk (north) along the path for a few steps to come to a signpost where you bear left in the direction of Crag Foot. Go along the gated way and turn left at a track to stride downhill. On reaching the road to Warton turn right and keep walking until you join the lower route to Warton.
Go along the pavement on the right of the road and then cross and walk on the left to take the signed left turn well before Quicksand Pool Bridge. Pass under the railway bridge, turn right to cross the Pool and step out left along the embanked way known as ‘the bund’. Follow this to a stile on the left and continue on the bund as it winds right to come to a signed stile at the foot of Heald Brow.
Turn right and follow the way through woodland to Hollins Lane. Turn right and then right again at the T-junction. Ignoring a road coming in on your right and then another on your left, carry on in the direction of the railway station and, just before you reach it, turn right in the direction of Leighton Moss visitor centre, which you may wish to visit.
Signpost at the end of ‘the bund’
Then continue a short way along the lane and take a footpath on the right which continues parallel with the road, allowing you to avoid the traffic until you eventually have to rejoin the road. A few steps along turn right to walk the wide causeway across the moss. Continue ahead to pass Grisedale farm on the left and follow the metalled road as it climbs easily to reach Leighton Hall. At the signboard bear left to climb uphill, keeping to the right of a small plantation, and head on up to the seats on the skyline.
Turn right to follow a good path through trees to a minor road. Go right and descend for about 1.6km (nearly 1 mile) to take a bridleway on the right, signed Crag Road. After a very short but steep climb, take the stile on the left into the nature reserve once more and follow the clear path that goes on and on through the trees. Pass through a stile in the wall and continue, watching out for the boulder in the path where the way drops left towards the road. Just before this, turn right along the path taken earlier to return to the car park.
WALK 3
Arkholme and Gressingham
| Start/Finish | Arkholme |
| Distance | 11.4km (7 miles) |
| Time | 3½ hours |
| Terrain | Easy walking all the way, but take care after rain on slippery tree roots across woodland paths |
| Maps | OS Explorer OL7 and OL41 |
To see a charming part of Lancashire, visit the quiet village of Arkholme and walk through the delightful surrounding countryside. Here rolling pastures support cattle and innumerable sheep, and deciduous woodlands resound with birdsong. The return is made along the side of the River Lune, which glides below silvery willows and dark alders and whose steep banks drop down to the waterside.
Many of the woods covering these banks are probably ancient, as they grow on land unlikely to have ever been cleared of trees, some of which may be hundreds of years old. The great age of the woods is shown by the wonderful variety of wildflower species they support. The display of bluebells and wild garlic in spring is particularly attractive.
Park behind the village hall in Arkholme, grid ref 583722. This lies on the south side of the Kirkby Lonsdale road, the B6254, just northeast of the crossroads in the centre of the picturesque village. Rejoin the B6254, which you cross and then walk back to the crossroads. Go on ahead along the B6254 and take the second signposted footpath on the right, which has a tiny stile, just before attractive Bainsbeck House. Walk ahead through a waymarked gate and then a fence, keeping to the right of the outbuildings. Bear slightly left across the pasture to go through a gate at the end of a hedge, and then continue ahead beside a ditch choked with the thrusting leaves of angelica.
At the next waymark cross a footbridge over a stream, left, into a pasture. Strike up the centre of the gently rising ground to climb a stile over a fence and walk on, the fence to your right, towards the cottages at Locka Farm. Go through two gates to join a track and then walk left, passing between several dwellings to join a narrow lane. Turn left to walk the hedged way, Locka Lane, which is lined with flowers in summer, and pass Lower Locka Wood, where in early spring lofty beeches tower over vast carpets of snowdrops. At the T-junction cross to the other side of the B6254 and walk right, using the verge where possible. To your left, through a tracery of leaves, you can see Storrs Hall, a Gothic mansion built in 1848 for Francis Pearson, a Kirkby Lonsdale solicitor. It has a striking, turreted mock-pele tower and an ornate boundary wall.
Just beyond the imposing gates to the hall, pass through a small green gate on your left signposted ‘Gressingham one mile’. Walk the fenced grassy track to a stile leading to pastures. Beyond, head across the gracious parkland to a waymarked stile in the fence. Ignore the arrow directing you left and continue ahead in the same direction, crossing another pasture to a stile on the skyline beside a corner of the wood on your right. Here you might spot roe deer. Then walk diagonally across the pasture to the bottom left corner, where a signposted stile gives access onto a lane. Turn left to stroll along the pleasant tree-lined lane, but beware of vehicles where it becomes single track. When the road branches take the right fork between the cottages of Gressingham, where the church, the hall and pretty houses huddle round falls that are thick with ferns.
Cross the main road and take one step left to walk down a track between a house and a barn into a charming leafy hollow – this is where Gressingham Beck and High Dam Beck meet. Cross these two streams by a long, white-painted footbridge with a pretty fall beneath the second. Stride on to a lane and walk left to pass Far Barn, and then on to a signposted gated track on your right. This might be a good point at which to explore Gressingham before continuing on your walk. The church, St John Evangelist, was rebuilt in 1734, but look for the Norman doorway as well as box pews and a huge Gothic tomb-chest.
Return to the gated track that leads out of the
