10:10am Monday 15th March 2010
By Mary Welsh
THIS is a very pleasing walk through the Dunnerdale fells to a fascinating causeway. The route to the latter is rather ‘contrived’ because of the rights of way over the superbly kept farming land. It is not open access land. Park in the square at Broughton- in Furness, grid ref 213876.
1 Leave the square, west, by New Street, using the pavement on the left side to round the blind corner safely. Carry on for a few steps, then cross, again with care, to go through the gate into West Park. Walk ahead through the middle of the pasture, keeping below the row of trees up on your right and then right of the pond, now colonised by bullrushes. Go ahead to the iron stile beside a gate on to a track, where you turn left. At the waymark, well before the white gates, bear right over the pathless pasture, cross a small stream and head on to the top left corner to take the stile in the hedge, which descends to the busy road.
2 Cross and take the gap stile to the right of the gate. Bear half right and go ahead through four various stiles to finally climb a stile over the fence on to Hag farm’s access track. Cross and step across a shallow beck and carry on beside the hedged and walled garden on your right. The way soon becomes muddy and as it descends a slope through the trees it becomes more muddy. Emerge from the trees and go on down to pass through a gate. Head across a large pasture, aiming for a gap left of a magnificent ancient ash and with the hedge/wall to your left. Drop down diagonally across the next pasture to a gate to a track, which is hidden until the last moment.
3 Squeeze through the very narrow gap stile and walk the rather wet but delightful track. It soon curves and is edged with stone flags. Beyond the stile at the end of the track, walk ahead to the gate/stile on to a narrow lane. Turn left and walk on to cross the River Lickle and then go through the gate/step stile a short way beyond, on the right. Stride ahead over a long pasture to climb a ladderstile. Follow the path and wind a little right, to ford a shallow stream. Continue across the pasture to the next stile and beyond follow the path to go through a gate in the wall on the right. Carry on following the waymarks to continue through a tiny wood and then on beside the Lickle to reach the road bridge at Broughton Mills.
4 Turn left and climb steadily. At Greenbank, follow the waymark directing you slightly right, uphill, on a track, to pass in front of a cottage on the right. Carry on up the delectable path, through trees, on the edge of Penny Crag Wood. Emerge from the trees by a gate and stroll on, less steep now, and follow the fine track as it winds left. This lovely, lawn-smooth way, divides at the top of the slope, but both tracks soon join up and carry on out into the glorious walled pastures below the Dunnerdale fells. Follow the track down a slope and through a gate and continue past a small cruck barn on your left.
5 Curve round on the track, below the slopes, to take the next gate in the wall giving access to a short walled track. Descend past a water trough and climb the slope ahead, keeping beside the wall on the left. Pass through a gate and head on until you reach a wide open area. Bear left to begin your descent to reach Pickthall Ground. Pass, on your left, a house and then in a few steps the farmhouse itself. At its corner, turn right on to a track coming down from the slopes and follow the route, waymarked with pieces of slate with FP painted on them. Go through a gate and then climb up the pasture, on a track, beside the wall on your left, to go through gate on to a more obvious track. Follow the descending track and continue where it winds left around a hilly outcrop. Carry on, watching out for the medieval causeway that crosses the extensive bog. Pause here and revel at this atmospheric site.
6 Return back up the curving track and go ahead through the left of the two gates, and descend to pass through the buildings of Pickthall farm to join its access track and descend right to the lane. Turn right and descend the steep hill to Croglinhurst, the farm at the bottom of the hill. Go straight ahead, ascending the lane, for half-a-mile to Middle Bleansley.
7 Turn left, after the dwelling, and wind down to cross the footbridge over the Lickle. Cross the pasture on a curving path to the far left corner. Beyond, step across a small stream and climb the slope, with the stream now to your left, to a stile, and then a gate, in the top left corner. Go on to pass in front of Hagg farmhouse and on up to the stile over the fence, taken earlier. Retrace your steps through the four stiles and cross the road to the stile in the hedge opposite. Turn right and walk over the pasture to the wide track. Bear left to the iron stile and gate and stroll across West Park to the gate in the far right corner on to the road. Walk left and wind around the blind corner and on into Broughton. Information Dstance: 6.5 miles Time: 3-4 hours Terrain: Many delightful paths and tracks. If you do not wish to visit the medieval causeway, take the signed way beside Pickthall farmhouse and descend right on the farm’s access track.
Map: both sides of OS Explorer OL 6
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