Graham’s Walks Vitals
- Distance: 10.2 miles/16.4 km
- Elevation: 1357 ft/413 m
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Start: Dunsop Bridge Car Park
- Graham’s Cafe: Not really, you could decide to drop into Lancaster or Scorton at the end of the walk. There is Puddleducks Tearoom in the village which isn’t on Graham’s Guides because I’ve never been.
- Classification: None
The Maps
The Area
This walk starts from the main car park in Dunsop Bridge a village whose main claim to fame is that it’s close to the Gravitational Centre of Great Britain, according to the Ordnance Survey. The measured centre is 7km further north near to a place known as the Whitendale Hanging Stones.
Dunsop Bridge sits on the River Dunsop, hence the name. The latter stages of this route follow the river from fells to the village. Just beyond the village, not on our walk, is the confluence of the Dunsop and the Hodder. The village and much of the area of this walk sit within the Duchy of Lancaster Whitewell Estate. The major exception to this is the land within the valley which is owned and managed by United Utilities as a water catchment area. You’ll pass several signposts talking about how United Utilities reduced the amount of water they are taking and seeking to make it better for nature.
Part way around this route is a memorial to four plane crashes that took place between 1940 and 1945, some quite near to our route, there are apparently 14 crash sites around the Bowland Fells.
One of the crashes that is commemorated is from January 1943 when a squadron of 45 Lockheed Lightning P38 were travelling from Hull to Northern Ireland for a refit. In cloudy conditions two of the Lightnings collided killing both pilots. The planes came down a mile apart, one on Dunsop Fell near to our route and the second on Baxton Fell a little further north of our route.
Another commemoration is to Sgt. T.T. Nawrocki from Poland who was the pilot of a Spitfire that crashed in 1942. The plane was on a test flight following an extensive overhaul at Woodvale in Merseyside near Southport. Radio communications suggested that all was well with the aircraft. Further radio communications said that the aircraft was in cloud near Preston and would be descending through that cloud back to Woodvale. When the aircraft didn’t return a search commenced which carried on for two days before a farmer found the wreckage and a day later members of the local home guard found the pilot’s body.
Notice that poor visibility is a common theme in these parts including on the day I decided to go.
While we are on the subject of clouds and rainfall. Dunsop is made up of two words Dun meaning hill and sop meaning marsh, bog, wet soggy place. They knew what they were doing with their names back then.
The Walk
Significant sections of this walk are on open moorland where you will need to be able to navigate without clearly defined paths and in poor visibility, hence I’ve marked this route as Difficult. While the latter stages of this walk are on accessible paths, there are several places where you will need to use a stile, climb some fencing and negotiate a bog or two.
I set off on a dull day with little promise of it getting any better and it didn’t until right at the end.
Dunsop Bridge to Beatrix
We start this walk in the Dunsop Bridge car park where you will find public toilets for your convenience. When I was last there the machine at the car park wouldn’t take cards, I didn’t have enough cash and there wasn’t enough mobile signal to pay via MiPermit. The solution was to take down the MiPermit number and to pay when I could get a signal which, from memory, was somewhere near to the village park.
From the car park head, on the road, towards the bridge and Puddleducks Tearoom. Just before the bridge take a right down the side of the tearooms. You’ll follow this path down the side of the river and the village park, along a straight bit of lane and then around the back of a couple of cottages.
Not far beyond the cottage there is a kissing-gate off to the right with a short footpath sign nearby. Beyond the gate you will walk through some woods up a hill and over a drystone wall.
This is where my route follows the signposts that are in the field rather than the paths shown on the OS maps. The OS maps show a path cutting an angle across the field. The signs in the field direct you alongside the fence and onto a lane where you turn left to Beatrix.
Beatrix to Laythams
This section is a long one, it’s not that the navigation is complicated, it’s just fiddly field-to-field stuff. The reality is it’s mostly straight from one field to the next but every now and then the path traverses a field diagonally.
In Beatrix the OS maps show a path going up to the top of Burns Fell on the left. At the start of this path is a big PRIVATE sign, so I decided to take a different route.
Not far beyond the PRIVATE sign is another path off to the left of the lane as it turns right.
You follow this path alongside fences and walls until you reach Oxenhurst Clough. Here the path descends quite steeply to a stream and ascends out the other side through some pine woods. The clough is a delightful little place.
Beyond the pine wood of the clough the path again traverses the hillside alongside fences and walls past The Hey and Burn House. Some of this is footpath, other parts are lane.
At Burn House you will first reach Hartley’s Huts, then go down the back of the farm and through an electric gate. The farm is the location of the crash memorial on the lefthand side of the lane just before the gate.
After the electric gate the lane takes a sharp righthand turn with a bank on the left.
From the turn head up the banking and look across the field where in most conditions you should be able to see a large multi-step stile on the far side of the field which heads into a wood. Aim straight for the stile picking up whichever bits of path you can find as you go.
Inside the woods on the other side of the stile you will find a path heading into the woods off to the right. This path will reach a ditch beyond which the area is marked PRIVATE and the path is directed along the ditch. At the end of the ditch you will find a stile.
On the other side of the stile the path heads diagonally across a field to the left. At the other end of the field you should be able to see a gate between two woods, aim for this.
Beyond the gate the path heads alongside a fence up a small incline which will bring you to a wall with another stile.
The field beyond the stile is the last fields in this section and again the OS map shows a path straight across it from one corner to the opposite corner. When I walked it recently the grass and wildflowers were quite tall and it wasn’t possible to see whether there was a defined path so I just headed across picking up whatever routes I could find.
At the far end of the field is a small gate out onto the road at Laythams.
Laythams to Burn End
The navigation on this section is a little easier.
Through the gate turn left along the road until you come to the entrance to Burnside Cottage which has a footpath fingerboard at the end.
Walk up the driveway towards the cottage until you reach a gate which will direct you to a footpath off to the right through a gate, then left alongside a hedge.
Follow the hedge until you come to another gate which will take you back onto the last remnants of the lane before it becomes a boggy path.
The boggy path will take you up an incline roughly following the route of a stream and a wall until you reach another wall where you will find a gate.
On the other side of the gate head to the right on a path that climbs while traversing the hill.
You will reach a switchback in the path to the left at what is roughly Burn End.
Burn End to Dunsop Head
From the switch back it’s time to enter more open moorland ascending the ridge of Wisket Hill which I think is a fabulous name.
At this point my dull weather day turned into rainy low cloud and any expectation of views slipped away. I suspect you can see for miles from up here, but I’ve never had that privilege.
Heading upwards you will eventually come to a fence which you will track alongside, up and along until you reach Dunsop Head close to the summit of Dunsop Fell.
At Dunsop Head there’s a stile over the fence. On the other side of the fence the landscape changes from grassy moorland grazed by sheep to grouse moor with heather. The grassy moorland is quite boggy, the grouse moor is especially boggy near to the summit.
Dunsop Head to Whitendale
Near to Dunsop Head there is a vague path heading off across the moor towards Whitendale directly opposite the stile.
Further along there is the occasional post marking the path as it works its way along a set of culverts interspersed by peat hags.
In time the path will become more discernible as a path.
The path will eventually start to descend towards Whitendale which it does via a couple of switchbacks to the left and then to the right.
Whitendale to Foot Holme
Just before the farm buildings and before the bridge over the Whitendale river turn to the left in the direction of the river alongside a wall.
The first part of this path isn’t well defined, but it will become a nice even path along the side of the valley.
The path passes through several gates and over a couple of footbridges where there are some nice waterfalls.
Beyond the waterfalls the path descends to Foot Holme where there is a footbridge across the Whitendale just before it joins with the Brennand to become the Dunsop. Cross the footbridge and turn left.
Foot Holme to Dunsop Bridge
On the other side of the footbridge at Foot Holme the path becomes more of a lane and most of it tarmac.
This lane goes all the way back to Dunsop Bridge. It’s pretty countryside, but the lane isn’t close enough to the Dunsop to give great views of river itself. There is, however, the occasional path that takes you alongside the river for a little while.
The route that we will take doesn’t use the lane all the way into Dunsop Bridge, we’ll take the footbridge back over the Dunsop near to the path we took to Beatrix and alongside the village park. The footbridge is accessed straight off the lane.
Beyond the village park you will come out onto the road next to Puddleducks Tearoom. Turn left onto the road and back to the car park on your left.
Alternative and Extensions
From Whitendale you can cross the river here and follow the road back to Foot Holme. The road climbs further than the path on the other side and takes a slightly longer route.
There is an alternative lower path from Beatrix to Laythams, I’ve never walked this route so couldn’t comment on how good it is.
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