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WALK 4

Littledale

Start/Finish	Roadside parking near Cragg farm (SD545617)
Distance	8km (5 miles)
Total Ascent	245m (800ft)
Terrain	Often muddy paths and upland tracks; some road walking
Maps	Explorer OL41 (Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale)

Remote Littledale is tucked away in the folds of the hills south of Caton, and provides this lovely opportunity for tranquil wandering through wooded cloughs and glens. Caton-with-Littledale parish boasts a good range of habitats, home to a variety of birds, including the hen harrier, symbol of the Forest of Bowland AONB.

Set off from the roadside parking area, heading east towards Cragg farm, just before which you cross a cattle-grid to start on the long road descent into Littledale – the views from this elevation are quite superb. At the bottom of the descent a road bridge takes you over Udale Beck. The road then goes left to cross Foxdale Beck, after which it climbs alongside beech woodland.

Continue to a road junction opposite New House farm, and there turn right along a lane for Littledale. Go past Crossgill farm, and then at the entrance of a driveway to Littledale Hall bear left, climbing gently past the Old Church House, the former church of St Anne, Littledale, built in 1750, but made redundant in 1978.

Beyond the former church, when the road bends to the left, leave it on the apex and bear right over a stile beside a gate. Go forward along a broad trail into Littledale.

The track passes below a spruce plantation on the left and leads on to another gate and stile, beyond which you parallel a wall. Further on you pass yet another old church, a Free Church. The Free Church was built in 1849 by the vicar of Cockerham, John Dodson, who also built the collection of buildings at Littledale Hall.

Sandwiched between a wall and fence the track goes past the church, and then, as the wall bears to the right above Littledale Hall, you keep left, heading towards Gill Plantation. At this point the route continues eastwards for another kilometre or so before simply turning round and coming back on a lower path, little more than 100m below. Alas, no right-of-way links the two paths, but because the onward walk is delightful, and the point where you turn around to come back makes an ideal place for a picnic, to tackle this elongated extension is no hardship, and gives, as you go further into the dale, a fine sense of moorland remoteness.

So, just after passing below the plantation the track meets a gate. Keep to the right of the gate, walking beside a wall and then a fence to a gate in a corner giving onto a narrow path between a fence and rhododendron. Keep alongside the fence, cross an in-flowing stream, and press on along the top edge of a wooded slope.

The on-going path gradually drops away from the fence, moving towards the dale bottom. At one point you cross a field track with the return path just a few strides below you, but press on, crossing the track and climbing briefly before resuming a more level course. Eventually the path descends towards a footbridge and ladder-stile. (Walk 5 joins the route at this point, and shares the route to its conclusion).

About 50m before reaching the footbridge, double back on yourself (to the right) onto a lower path – indistinct and intermittent for a time – that runs along the bottom of the slope you have just crossed. This path leads back to that field track you encountered earlier. Now join the track, going forward to a gate and stile at the foot of a wall immediately adjoining the stream.

You part company with the stream for a short while at a gate and stile to head towards Littledale Hall. Cross a bridge near the hall and climb left, then dink right and left between farm buildings to find a metal gate, beyond which a track leads beside Foxdale Beck to a footbridge.

Over the bridge, bear right onto a rising path through woodland to a stile at the top boundary. Cross the stile and keep right, alongside a fence. Follow the fence to a through-stile just before Field Head farm. Pass to the right of the farm buildings to intercept the farm access. Continue across the end of a small coppice and on to a cattle-grid. Press on along a farm access, with a view in the far distance of the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster.

Stay with the track as it descends to Bellhill farm. Cross another cattle-grid, and then turn left through an area where the farm buildings have been converted to residential use. Locate a gate to the right of the original Bellhill farmhouse. Descend briefly to a field gate and then go down a track beside a fence. At the bottom, turn right at a waymark and then bear left to a ford and footbridge, where you meet Udale Beck again.

Over the bridge, walk up a stony track, but keep an eye open for a waymarked step-stile beside a metal gate on the right. Cross this to gain a rising track around the edge of a small woodland, above which it continues beside a fence. The track leads to wooded Sweet Beck, centred in a narrow ravine. Cross this and then walk up to Skellow Barn.

Swing right past the barn on a raised grassy track and shortly walk alongside a wall. Cross a stile beside a gate, soon going left at another gate onto a track rising to Cragg farm, where the outward route is joined. Now simply turn left to return to the start.