THIS is a short easy walk from near Brettagh Holt roundabout, along the road to Sizergh Castle, writes JOHN EDMONDSON. The start is easy to reach either by car or bus. The walk goes through Levens village, passes Levens Hall, with a delightful stroll through a deer park, then along a canal towpath (although the canal is no longer here) near Sedgwick.

Start from the large parking area beside the road to Sizergh Castle, 200 yards from the A590 (grid reference SD 501869).

Information:

Distance: 4.7 miles with 400 feet of ascent

Time: 2 hours

Terrain: field paths and quiet roads

Map: OS Explorer OL7

Route

1 Go through the gate behind the parking area and along a green lane. Walk past a barn and house then turn left up the road. Keep right at the junction and cross the larger road onto the track signed Heaves Farm. Keep left of the large house to go through a metal kissing gate and along the top of fields with good views of the Kent valley to the left. After two fields go through a gate into a paddock, past the farmhouse and to the left of a large stone barn to the road. Walk down the road to Levens, enjoying views over the Lyth Valley to Whitbarrow on the right. Keep right, passing Levens Institute, and shortly before reaching the church turn left onto a footpath marked by a fingerpost. At the top, turn right to pass St John’s Church and after 100 yards left onto the path signed Nether Levens.

2 Walk down the field to meet a tarmacked farm track at a fence stile and cross the bridge over the A590. Turn left onto the road alongside the River Kent and right at the junction with the main road. Go over a stile on the right to walk along the off-road footpath to a wood. Turn right after a ladder stile and go through the woods to Levens Bridge, pausing to look across the river on the right to Levens Hall, home to the Bagot family for four centuries. Cross the bridge then turn left onto the footpath into Levens Hall Deer Park. Once the hall’s carriage drive, this dramatic avenue was landscaped by Guillaume Beaumont, a French gardener who died in 1727. You may spot Bagot black fallow deer that roam the park in a landscape little changed over the centuries.

3 Exit the park via a stepped gated stile and turn left on the road to go over the A590 flyover then immediately turn right up steps onto a field path signed Hawes Bridge via Canal Towpath. Turn left at the canal bridge and descend to cross a road on to a footpath signed Force Bridge. The path joins a road by an ornate metal fence that what was once the western entrance to Sedgwick House. The house was built in 1868 for William Henry Wakefield, who owned a local gunpowder factory. Cross the bridge and at the right hand bend turn left into Pigwilly Wood on the footpath to the A590. Turn right then left at the roundabout to go under the flyover and beside the dual carriageway. After the layby (bus stop) cross the road. A footpath fingerpost points up the bank to a fence but a stile is through trees on the right. Alternatively walk up the road signed Sizergh Castle and return to the parking area.

Next week: High Rigg and Great How

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.