The area around Whitewell is certainly beautiful and was a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh. In May 2006 they visited nearby Dunsop Bridge then enjoyed their first pub lunch – a five-course meal at the Inn at Whitewell to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday.
The late Queen famously said if she were to retire it would be to rural Lancashire and one story has it that while walking in the countryside with a member of her security staff she met someone heading the other way. They exchanged pleasantries and the walker joked: ‘Apparently, the Queen likes it here – you've not met her, have you?’
‘I haven’t,’ the Queen replied before pointing to the man with her. ‘But he has.’
It’s not hard to see why the area is so popular – with monarchs and others.
The countryside around here is a vast unspoiled wilderness: the Forest of Bowland is an area the size of New York city and it’s dotted with picture perfect villages and great places to eat and drink.
One of the finest is the Inn at Whitewell, close to where this walk begins and ends. It is a former coaching house and is famous for its excellent accommodation and food and sits next to the River Hodder.
Spring Bridge used to span the Hodder here until, in June 1906, two large parties of visitors arrived by charabancs and stood on the bridge to admire the view. Unfortunately, the bridge could not stand the weight and collapsed. No one was seriously hurt, but the bridge was never rebuilt and just the piers remain. The present St Michaels Church next to the inn is over 200 years old but the site itself dates to 1478.
1. Leave the car park and walk up to the main road. Cross this and follow the road opposite uphill to reach a footpath sign on the right and some steps leading up to a stile and cross this.
Follow the path as it bears right and passes behind a house on the right and up towards another house on the left. Join a track then turn right and follow this to reach a metal gate where our path turns left and heads uphill to another metal gate. Go through that and turn right.
Reach and cross a gate stile by a gate, then bear slightly diagonally right and head downhill to reach a wire fence. Keeping this on the left, follow it to a metal gate and go through this and keep on with a wire fence on the left to reach a big metal gate with a metal stile. Cross this into an open field then bear diagonally right towards the corner of the field and go through a metal gate and then reach a heavy metal gate leading into the road.
Once through the gate, turn left and follow the road as it passes the edge of a wood and cross the stile on the right with a footpath sign. Turn left and bear diagonally right across the field heading downhill to reach the corner of a wood, keeping this on the right, reach and cross a stile by a wooden gate.
Carry straight on and follow the path as it gradually heads towards the river then cross a stream and carry on to a wooden gate and stile and cross this. Bear slightly diagonally left uphill, passing a line of trees to the right, and reach a wooden gate with a stile on the left. Cross the stile and carry on to reach another stile and cross this, then carry on to a stile by a metal gate and cross this into a tarmac road and turn right. Follow the road to a farm and pass between this and the river that is on the right.
2. Take the path on the right to some stepping stones and cross these, then follow the path uphill to a stile. Cross this, then the field, to reach and cross a metal gate stile and a footbridge which leads to a main road where our route turns left and follows the road. Reach a road junction and keep straight on, following the sign for Chipping.
Keep following the path as it reaches a group of houses – Higher Greystoneley – and the path turns to a tarmac road and passes between the houses and then carries on to the main road. Join the main road and turn right.
4. Reach a footpath sign and stile on the left and cross this and then a second stile and bear diagonally right to a metal gate which we go through into Fair Oak. Follow a flagged path between a barn on the left and a shippen on the right, then turn left and go through the yard and turn right a pass to the left of a steel feed silo. Keep left, do not enter a larger farmyard, and pass a house on the right and immediately turn right. As the track turns left there is a metal gate in front, go through the gate and cross the field to reach and cross a stile, then follow a wire fence on the left and keep following this as it turns left.
Reach and cross a ladder stile over a wall and follow the path as it skirts a limestone hill on the left then drops downhill. The route passes to the left of a wood then drops steeply to New Laund.
Go through a wooden gate and join a farm track, then turn right to reach a pair of wooden gates and to the left of these is another wooden gate. Go through this and follow the track downhill then break off and, with the woods on the right, go down to the river.
5. Cross the stepping stones and climb up to a wooden gate and go through this then head diagonally right across the field and go through a wooden gate then pass through the yard in front of the houses to reach the car park.
START AND FINISH: Car park near church next to The Inn at Whitewell BB7 3AT. #
DISTANCE: 5.8 miles/9.3km
TIME: 3 hours
MAP: OS Map OL41 Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale.
TERRAIN: Good walking on footpaths and tracks but there are two sets of stepping stones across the River Hodder that may be slippery when wet and should not be attempted when the river is flowing at high water levels.
FACILITIES: There are no public toilets on route but there are some in Dunsop Bridge two and a half miles away.
