Take a walk in open countryside and woodland from Furness Abbey (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Take a walk in open countryside and woodland from Furness Abbey

9:00am Friday 28th October 2011

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A second walk from Furness Abbey Park in the small car park in Abbey Approach, just north of the Abbey Mill coffee shop, grid ref 220715.

This is a surprising walk in that there is so much open countryside and woodland so close to Barrow. Trying to link the two pleasing areas has been quite difficult and has involved some road walking - something I try to avoid. The first section is on tarmacked track, which wanders through the open pastures and is an ideal route after rain. The second part keeps to pavements of fairly busy roads, with one short stretch along a narrow lane. The final section takes you through Abbotwood Nature reserve on good tracks and is very attractive now that autumn has arrived.

1 Leave the parking area by the wooden farm gate and walk towards the coffee shop to take a right turn well before it. Go through the signposted gate and bear left along a well-reinforced track. The path winds between grassy hillocks and then becomes tarmacked and fenced on either side, with pastures sloping up right, and the railway running below a bank of trees on the left. The view is idyllic of rolling hills and patches of woodland and the peace and quiet - a joy.

2 Descend very gently towards Park House farm and walk beside the outbuildings on the left, with the railway beyond. Continue past a complex of red stone buildings and fine stone walls on the right. Go through the gate and past a signpost that directs you ahead on the ‘Greenway.’ The track continues through fields of sheep and cows with the railway close by but quite unobtrusive. To your left flows Mill Beck. The path in high summer is lined with wild flowers and tall lush grasses. Cross the wide footbridge over the beck and wind right to go through a gate.

3 Carry on the reinforced wide track, through rough pasture planted with young trees, still with the beck to your right, to reach a busy road, which you cross with care. Go on along the signposted track, slightly left, with bungalows to the left and lined with tall trees to your right. A short way along, take the left branch when the track divides. This leads to the busy road once more. Bear right and, keeping on the pavement go past Roose station. Remain on the pavement and climb gently towards the railway bridge ahead. Cross with great care when a pavement emerges on the other side and walk, left, over the railway bridge on the A5082. Immediately beyond the bridge turn left into a quieter road with the railway to your left.

4 Keep ahead on the pavement and continue to the corner of the next fairly busy road where stands the Ship Inn. Turn left here and walk on until you have passed the last house and the pavement ends. Ahead the road continues as a narrower hedge-lined lane. Keep in single file, well tucked in, facing on-coming traffic. At a sharpish blind corner cross and wind round, then return to the other side to soon take a well signed kissing gate, on the right, into pasture, shadowed by a gorse covered steep slope on the right.

5 Wind left on a clear path, which climbs imperceptibly above the road. Look ahead to see if you can spot, left, in the valley ahead, the three-arched Bow Bridge on the old packhorse route to the abbey. Go through a waymarked gate and walk very slightly right and ahead to a sturdy stile through the hedged boundary of the next large pasture. Follow the signed way uphill, in the same general direction, to a three-armed signpost. Turn left and drop down the almost pathless pasture, bearing slightly right to reach a kissing gate ont o the lane again. The gate is hidden from view by trees as you descend to a road junction and a small triangle of grass. (If you wish to visit Bow Bridge, turn left to walk to a signed right turn. Continue across the meadow, keeping to the right of the stream to a stile onto the road, near South Lodge) 6 Cross with care and walk the pathless lane to go by fine South Lodge on your right. Just beyond is the entrance to Abbotswood Nature Reserve and an interesting information board. Follow the tarmacked path through the woodland, with many fine ancient trees to shadow your way. Soon there is a view down on to the Abbey - if the tree foliage isn’t too dense. Remain ahead on the main path which narrows as it reaches a large meadow with a few sandstone ‘bits’ of the foundations of Abbotswood Mansion, the site of the home of Sir John Ramsden. Read more about this fascinating site on two more small plaques. Then carry on.

7 When you can spot, ahead, a gate out into a pasture, take a left turn that descends in wide shallow easy steps through the glorious woodland. At the bottom of the first flight is a stone bench. From here similar steps take you gently down to the side of a pasture and the beck flowing through it. Then climb more shallow steps to arrive at your outward track. Carry on a short way, watching out for a narrow reinforced path that leads, right, through bushes. It then descends more easy steps and then another short flight of steps, both with handrails, to the road. Turn right, and a short way along is the car park. Before leaving you might be tempted by the excellent coffee at the Abbey Mill coffee shop.

Information

Distance: 5 miles

Time: 2-3 hours

Terrain: Reinforced tracks and some road walking

Map: OS Explorer OL 6

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.