Forest of Bowland- Grit Fell, Ward's Stone and High Stephen's Head
For our last day of our Forest of Bowland trip, we thought that we'd do what the guidebook described as one of the classic high-level routes, and it proved to be a great day out. As we'd had to drive for a while before reaching our start point at Little Cragg, we started a little later than planned. After a brief descent to Skelbow Barn, we began the climb to just south-east of Clougha, where we started our walk along the rounded ridge to Grit Fell.
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| Near Clougha with a view of Ingleborough on the horizon |
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| View over Morecombe Bay to southern lakes |
We made our way on from Grit Fell to Ward's Stone and its two trig points where we had a somewhat chilly lunch.
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| Lunch spot at Ward's Stone's lower trig point |
Ward's Stone's higher (by one metre) trigpoint at the eastern end has its brass cap and a plaque proclaiming it to be a monument!
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| Brass cap- locked in place as the trig point is a monument |
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| Monument plate on Trig Point 2981 |
From Ward's Stone we followed the path down to Queen's Chair at the junction of fences, where we had the choice of a boggy path or a slightly longer route reckoned to be dryer. We chose the boggy route, which went directly to High Stephen's Head where we started our descent with views over to the souther lakeland peaks and to the amusement of many sheep.
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| Lakeland in the distance and bemused sheep |
From that point onwards, the walk became a bit less pleasant, following a fence beside Ragill Beck. The guidebook instructed us to cross the beck but wasn't specific about where. The book did, however, describe the going as "reedy" and this was a bit of an understatement. We eventually reached Deep Clough with Closegill Beck running though it- this was Quaker Country. The paths above and beside Closegill Beck led us to Littledale Hall where we met our first significant path challenges. After a significant amount of to-ing, fro-ing and fence-straddling, we managed to get onto the path to Field Head Farm.
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| Follow the blue line- I wish it had been the dotted green one! |
By this time, the headtorches came out and references to the map (and confirmation with the OS app) became more and more frequent. The next stage to Bellhill Farm was straightforward and a helpful farmer pointed us through the maze of buildings there but, on the far side of the ford at Wisp Wood, we managed to get onto the wrong side of the (inevitable) fence and therefore made life harder for ourselves. We made our way back towards Skelbow Barn and, after much surveying, crossed Sweet Beck and a, by current standards, modest fence, scrambled up a bank and returned to familiar ground.
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| Follow the blue line... |
The return to the car was uneventful but a little creepy with glowing sheeps' eyes looking at us.
A Burger King Veggieburger was a reward (compensation?) for the navigator on the trip home.
Notwithstanding the late finish, a grand day out of 12.6 miles with 680m ascent.
