Let’s Take A Walk
Mark Sutcliffe takes us on a rewarding hike along the Dunsop Valley, climbing into the fells and offering expansive views across the stunning upland scenery of the Forest of Bowland. Photography: Mark Sutcliffe
DUNSOP VALLEY
Distance: 13km/8miles
Time: 3hrs 30m
Ascent: 260metres
Terrain: Surfaced tracks and rugged moorland paths with a steep ascent and descent
Grade: Moderate
Refreshments: Puddleducks Tearooms, Dunsop Bridge
Parking: Dunsop Bridge pay and display car park
ROUTE
• Turn right out of the car park, past Puddleducks cafe and right again through the gateway onto a tarmac track. Continue past the playground and over a cattle grid and follow the track past the farm cottages then left onto a gravel path and through a gate into woodland. Cross the footbridge and join the tarmac road heading right up the valley. Continue on this road past more cottages for half a mile. At the fork after a low building, keep left on the tarmac and continue up the valley for another half mile.
• At the waterworks building, continue past the pumping station and right over the bridge. Then, after 150m, cross the footbridge on the right and continue left through a gate on the track up the valley. Continue upstream besides the beck, past the stone hut and follow the path right, climbing steeply up the ghyll and over a makeshift footbridge to join a larger path.
• Follow this path left around the lip of the ghyll then round to the right as it continues up the main valley through a series of gates (please close them after you). Follow the path as it heads to the right of the farm then, at the sign beside the gravel track, descend left and through the metal gate. Continue past the farmhouse then right over the humpback bridge and left over a footbridge.
• The steep climb out of Whitendale is often muddy and slippery so take care and do not attempt it in unsuitable footwear. Walking boots or sturdy shoes with deep tread patterns are essential – and consider using walking poles for extra stability. Climb steeply through the woods and up onto the open fellside. As the gradient levels out, continue through the gate and follow the path half left across duckboards to pick up a line of posts across the felltop.
• Follow the faint path through the marshy plateau as it descends half right towards the gate besides a small tarn. Go through the kissing gate on the left of the main gate and descend beside the beck. After 300m, cross the beck and continue the descent alongside a dry stone wall. Continue over a stile and descend along the wall past the coppice then left to join the track heading through a gate and across the beck.
• At the fork head right to the valley floor. Turn left at a stream and follow the track over the bridge and left through a farmyard, then continue on a track beside the river for just under a mile to the junction of Brennand and Whitendale valleys beside the pumping station. Retrace your steps past the pumping station on the track back down Dunsop Valley to Dunsop Bridge.
Discover more of Mark’s Lancashire walks with a copy of the Cicerone Guide to ‘Walking in Lancashire’.
cicerone.co.uk/walking-in-lancashire
