Walking Maps

Calder Vale: Three Parishes

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Walk Description

This route is waymarked with a red disc labelled ‘Calder Vale Walk Red 2’.

1. Turn left onto the road outside Calderbank Lodge and take the first road on the right signposted ‘School and Church’.
2. Continue on past the turning to the Church where the road becomes a track. Go through a farm, after the last building take the first gate on the left. Go straight ahead up the field, staying right of the old quarry and head for the far right corner of the field and cross a stone stile in the wall.
3. Turn left and follow the fence round to pass through a kissing gate, then cross the field to a stile to the right of Rough Moor. Turn right onto the drive, then right along the road for a short distance, then left through wall onto a path through a narrow wood.
4. Cross the field and go right onto the estate road. Past Bleasdale Tower and turn left at Brooks Barn.
5. Continue along this track past Hazelhurst Farm, then through Holme House Farm and past Admarsh Barn Farm on the right. Continue past Vicarage Farm to Bleasdale Church and School, turning right after the School.
6. Follow the estate road, which is lined by beech hedges, to the first stone gate on the left. Go through the gate and bear right onto Weaver’s Farm and out onto the road.
7. Cross the road and take the footpath up the bank into the wood. Ignore the first stile and follow the path through the wood for 200 meters, then the take stile on left. Turn right and follow the fence on the right and over another stile. Note: There is a path on the other side of fence, but this is not a right of way.
8. Take the next stile that leads to a steeply descending path towards the River Brock, follow the path to a footbridge and the ruins of Gill Barn. Turn right keeping the stream on your right.
9. The path now widens as it approaches Waddecar Youth Activity Centre (Scout Camp). Continue through the Centre to the toilet block.
10. Here the footpath veers away from the river and wood for a short way; emerging on Snape Rake Lane. Turn right down the lane and over the footbridge.
11. Follow the track up to a road T junction.
12. Cross the road and follow Delph Lane uphill until you reach a stone wall stile on your left.
13. Go over this stile and cross the fields and through the wood. Come out into a field passing to the right of the Huds Brook Farm. Continue through several fields until you reach Butt Hill farm on your right and then out onto Hobbs Lane.
14. Turn right along this lane and take the first track on your right to Cobble Hey Farm.
15. Head north from the cobbled yard of Cobble Hey. Just past the farmhouse turn right through a gate and go past the animal pens and children’s play area to another gate. Continue through the field bearing slightly left of the wall on the right. The field dips by a stream where there is a gate, head for the gate.
16. After the gate, climb the field straight ahead, keeping the fence on the left, follow this to and through the next gate. Follow the fence on the right as it bends round to another gate at the start of a hedge-lined track.
17. At the end of the track go through the gates into Higher Landskill farmyard. Turn left just beyond the farmhouse and follow the farm road towards Calder Vale until it bends sharp right. On the bend there is a footpath to the left.
18. Take this footpath across the field through a kissing gate in a fence near the edge of a wood. Continue in the same direction across the field, heading downhill to cross a footbridge.
19. Turn right and follow the track into Calder Vale. On reaching the road at Calder Vale turn right past the village shop and post office, to a footpath on the left to Kelbrick Farm. (Do not cross the road bridge)
20. Go up through the wood to a kissing gate. Turn right and cross the field to the far left hand corner. Keep going straight ahead, keeping the fence on your right. Turn left over a stile. Follow the fence on the left round the field and go over a stile on the left.
21. At Kelbrick Farm go round the farmyard and follow the farm track to the road. At the road cross to a footpath opposite, and follow this along the left hand edge of the field to a farm track. At the track turn right.
22. Follow the track, turning left before reaching Bank Farm. At the crossing take the track on the right, keeping the aerial mast and wireless station on the left.
23. At the road turn left, downhill to a T-junction, turn right and follow the road the short distance back to Calderbank Lodge.

About this walk

This walk passes through the three parishes of Bleasdale, Barnacre-with- Bonds and Claughton-on-Brock. Bleasdale is a small privately owned estate.

Bleasdale Tower was originally a shooting lodge, but in 1847 it was rebuilt and enlarged by William James Garnett. Garnett was a philanthropist and agricultural reformer, as well as an MP for Lancaster 1857-64. Garnett also set up, on the estate, one of the first Reformatory Schools in the country.

During springtime, Cobble Hey is a good breeding area for a variety of wading birds. Birds such as lapwing, curlew and redshank all raise their young on the surrounding fields.

Calder Vale grew around several textile mills, one of which still operates today. The mill is in the centre of the village and is run by the Lappet Company. They produce cotton Arab headdresses which they export to the Middle East.

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