CALDER Vale village sits in a steep sided valley close to the A6 and the town of Garstang, writes JOHN EDMONDSON. This pastoral walk visits the Bronze Age Bleasdale Circle, goes along the River Brock and returns via the open farm of Cobble Hey.

Start from the bridge in Calder Vale village (grid reference SD 532 458, postcode PR3 1SJ).

Information

Distance: 10 miles and 1,000 feet of ascent

Time: 5 hours

Terrain: grassy paths, tracks and quiet roads.

Map: OS Explorer OL41

Route

1 Walk past Lappet Mill onto Long Road and continue through a metal gate signed St John’s Church. Follow the woodland path, curving right uphill to the church. Pass the school then turn right at the road junction onto the bridleway signed Landskill and Delph Lane. After passing buildings turn left through a waymarked kissing gate up to a wall stile in the top right corner. Looking back, Blackpool Tower may be spotted. Walk alongside the fence on the left, bending left through a kissing gate and passing to the right of a house. Turn right; and at the road, right again then after 150 yards left onto a signed footpath, merging with a tarmac lane. Follow the lane through Bleasdale Tower Estate and past Bleasdale Tower house.

2 Turn left at Brooks Barn. The track goes over a cattle grid, bends right at the foot of the wide valley, passes through Holme House farmyard then goes through a metal gate onto a grassy track (broken fingerpost). Continue along the track which later becomes surfaced and after crossing a cattle grid turn left onto a concessionary footpath signed Bleasdale Circle.

3 After viewing the circle return to the track, turn left and continue past St Eadmers Church. Turn right after the school (before a cattle grid) and after 250 yards left through a waymarked wooden field gate. Cross the field diagonally to a barn. Walk through the farmyard, cross a road, then go over a stile, along the top edge of a wood and descend past gorse bushes to the valley bottom. Cross the footbridge then walk through the scout camp. Turn right opposite a toilet block to follow the course of the River Brock. Turn left after passing a 'rest a while' bench and walk up the bank-side path. At the top turn right onto a track going back down the valley, across a footbridge next to a ford and up the other side. Cross Bleasdale Lane and walk along Delph Lane for 700 yards.

4 Turn left over a wall stile and walk in the direction shown by a waymarker to a wood. Go through the wood and across fields to a stile near a gate on the right of the farm. Cross a lane, keeping at the same level (heading towards the distant Blackpool Tower) and across a track. Pass to the left of Butt Hill farm to a road and turn right. Turn right onto the lane to Cobble Hey open farm, following the track through the farm then along the waymarked Tramper Trail. The trail turns left just before a gate and follows a fence round to the right to a green lane signed Landskill and Calder Vale. At the farm turn left onto a concrete track, which bends right then left, and descend into Calder Vale.

NB: restrictions on space mean that this article provides a general summary of the route. It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map.