Walking Maps

Calder Vale: Bluebells Woodlands Delights

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Walk Description

The route may be used by wheeled chairs/pushchairs, although care should be taken with the steep inclines up and down the valley side. Approximately half the route length is over rocky farm track and there are at least two cattle grids to negotiate.

1. From the Post Office, cross the bridge over the river and follow the road left past the long row of cottages, aptly named “Long Row”.
2. Continue through the gate at the end and follow the tarmac path along the river, heading upstream past a mill lodge and eventually going steeply uphill.
3. Arriving at the churchyard, go through a wooden gate and cross the graveyard along the path straight ahead, and out through another wooden gate bringing you into the schoolyard. Carry straight on to a road T-junction.
4. Turn right onto a stone farm track and follow the track through Lower Landskill Farm and bear left, passing through a steel gate. After a gentle rise go over a cattle grid (or through the gate next to the grid); this is the highest point on the walk. Continue on the track, which turns sharply right and heads downhill. After a steel gate you arrive at Landskill Farm.
5. Turn right and cross the farmyard, over the cobbles and out along the concrete track heading downhill, with a view of Blackpool Tower ahead of you in the distance. Take care, as the track surface can be slippery when wet.
6. Where the concrete track splits, turn right and go over another cattle grid (or use adjacent gate). Crossing yet another grid you arrive at Stirk Hey Cottage; turn left and continue downhill until you reach the end of Long Row cottages and rejoin your original route.

About this walk

Passing trough Calder Vale during summer, you may hear the “screaming” of the swifts, up above in the sky. These remarkable birds have sickle shaped wings and remain in flight for almost the whole of their life; they even sleep whist flying. The only time they land is to nest and raise their young.

During springtime, the woodland between the village and St John’s Church is a carpet of bluebells and spring wildflowers. Typical woodland birds you are likely to see include tits, chaffinch, blackbird, robin and wren.

Every Sunday in May the ladies of Calder Vale run ‘bluebell teas’: homemade refreshments are available in the village hall, in aid of the church mission hall.

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