To the West Coast

Day 9 - Sedbergh to Arnside (20 miles 32km)


 

The final day of my coast to coast walk was another long day and about 20 miles in length. In contrast to the previous eight days much of this was along narrow country lanes linked together with footpaths across fields. This required accurate map reading - fortunately with only a couple of exceptions the paths were clearly signposted.

Leaving Sedbergh I headed down the Dent road past..

.....the parish church of St Andrews, which dates back to 1130 although restored in the 19th century.

On the outskirts of the town lies Sedbergh School (founded in 1525) and its extensive playing fields that spread across the lower part of Sedbergh.

The road heads down to the....

.....bridge over the River Rawthey...

....where my route joined the Dales Way for the next few miles.

At first the Dales Way heads across meadows and then..

.....into woods...

.....with this curious sunken section between stone walls.

Just beyond the wood is this plaque commemorating the...

....planting of a wood which stretches across a field - this is just a small part of it.

Beyond, the path falls down to the river..

....to Birks House.....

......where a lane down....

.....to an old mill is followed. This is now used as a warehouse and I had to wait whilst several articulated lorries passed along the narrow lane.

The Dales Way sign is hidden behind the warehouse..

....and the DW now follows the river bank...

....before climbing up and...

.....then down the embankment of the old railway line.

The iron railway bridge is still in place.

There's a section across meadows before...

...the path rises up near Brigflatts.

Once on the A683 there's a walk of about half a mile along the verge...

...until this rather concealed stile is reached on a particularly winding section of the road - easy to miss.

The DW heads across the field and this bridge before climbing up a bank...

.....and then dropping down by a hedge to a gate at the bottom of the field. I succeeded in getting lost here as there's no clear way marking.

The path then goes between hedges....

....to reach the delightful hamlet of High Oaks...

...complete with one house built in 1706.

The Dales Way sign is followed through the hamlet..

....to a stile just up the hill where a signpost points to Killington New Bridge.

Now leaving the Dales Way my route headed across a succession of ladder stiles.

Looking back to the Howgill Fells above Sedbergh.

The path drops down to the River Lune....

.....where there is a broad path...

.....along to Killington New Bridge.

'Autumnal colours and the River Lune'

The junction sign points towards Killington..

....which is reached along a narrow lane..

......which twists and turns and rises...

....to reach Four Lane Ends where the right fork heads uphill and...

.....then down into Killington.

Killington is another delightful hamlet but is particularly interesting because of the hall which includes the remains of a 15th century pele tower. Unfortunately, the building was under renovation so I took no photos. This link takes you to a web page about it.

http://www.visitcumbria.com/sl/killington-hall.htm

The way forward now climbs out of the village...

....to reach a stile signposted to Aikrigg.

There's a short climb uphill...

.....before Aikrigg farm becomes visible across the fields.

Then it's along the farm access lane...

...down a delightful valley...

.....towards the junction with another road at Three Mile House.

Here the 'Old Scotch Road' is joined. This was an old cattle drovers' road from Kirkby Lonsdale to Tebay. See the link below for further details.

http://www.hodology.com/resources/Old-Scotch-Road.pdf

This lane was followed for a short distance before branching uphill on the road to Old Hutton and Kendal. Beware: the signpost is a little confusing as it is set up in a way where the finger posts don't actually point along the roads!

The lane continues to another junction where..

...the road to Old Town and Kirkby Lonsdale is followed....

......gently uphill....

.....to reach a stile marked Crosslands.

The bridleway goes across rough grazing..

....in places sunken..

.....until it reaches a wall and overgrown gate.

Beyond the 21st century intrudes as these signposts were the first warning I had of the new Armistead wind turbines. There will shortly be six 120m high turbines here.

Work on construction was well advanced with access roads, bridges and deep excavations under way.  Another part of rural England to be blighted!

Beyond, the bridleway continues across grass ...

.....and along a wall...

...to reach a farm track...

...which leads to Crosslands Farm.

The Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale road is crossed and....

....the lane through the farm yard is used...

....to head westwards...

....with the first views of the lake District fells coming into sight.

A footpath sign points the way .......

....towards a gate and then a sharp right turn...

...along a wall...

....is followed  across a series of field boundaries...

....until a track is reached...

.....heading downhill ....

...with the excitement of the first sighting of Morecambe Bay and the West Coast. The River Kent estuary is seen in the centre.

The track drops to Sill Field Farm...

...where the lane leads up....

.....to Gatebeck Road....

....and a bridge over the M6.

Beyond the motorway the road drops down to reach this stile...

....with a path across the fields ..

.....and then down to a beck where there is a ford...

...and finally it continues to rejoin another...

....paved lane.  After a short distance...

....a gate and a signpost point to the next footpath.

The path follows the wall...

....down to Challon Hall Farm...

....where a walled track keeps walkers away form the farm buildings.

Then it's over the bridge across the Peasey Beck....

....and then through fields...

...and along the river bank to reach...

....Crosslands....

...and the main A 65 Kendal to Skipton road. Unfortunately, I hadn't enough time to pop in the pub for a coffee as time was pressing if I was to reach Arnside before dusk.

After crossing the bridge over the Lancaster Canal ....

......there was a short section of towpath walking...

....before a return to the paved lane towards Milton....

...where there is this impressive house and..

...then it was down the lane to...

...Milton Mill...

...and under the main A590 road bridge...

....followed by a right turn up another lane.

The path towards Kidside was taken but it was here that I lost my way for a few minutes due to bad map reading in the complex series of fields and being misled by farm vehicle tracks that looked like the path. However I soon discovered...

.....that I'd walked past a rather inconspicuous stile at the bottom of the field.

The path, according to the map, goes diagonally across this field so that's what I did - probably not easy in summer.

Once out of the Kidside farm area the access lane took me....

.....down to the Crooklands to Milnthorpe road. According to the OS  map there should be a path directly opposite but where is it?

Close study of the hedge revealed an almost complete hidden stile so it was a case of pushing through the hedge and...

...then uphill towards that tree on the skyline but again where was the stile?

Eventually, I found it further down the field boundary....

...and a short walk downhill found me on another lane...

... heading towards Rowell.

Rowell is another hamlet with...

...yet another group of 18th century houses and farm buildings.

The West Coast Main Line is crossed just beyond the hamlet so I decided to have a brief rest in the hope a train came along, which it did - an Edinburgh to Birmingham service travelling at about 110 mph.

Just beyond the bridge, a track leads off through the gate on the left following...

.....the field boundary fence...

.....to reach some houses...

.....where the path goes down...

...to a lane.

A few hundred yards along the lane this signpost points towards Haverflatts Lane.

The path can be seen clearly going through the fields to the skyline.

Beyond lay this sight of unharvested crops, presumably left to rot as a result of the wet summer,

The way forward is now down Haverflatts Lane towards Milnthorpe.

Over to the west is St Anthony's Tower, built in 1832 to celebrate the passing of the Reform Bill. More details can be found at this link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendutch/6816631344/

At this unusual crossroads the way down to Milnthorpe is straight ahead....

....and soon the outskirts of the town are reached,

From Milnthorpe my route crossed the A6 and then went straight ahead down the Arnside road to reach.....

....a bridge over the River Bela...

....and through the gates to The Milnthorpe deer park.

Way mark posts lead across the grass...

.....rising above the country house of Dallam Tower.

Herds of deer could be seen scattered across the park.

The path leads to the road that crosses the park and then continues...

.....gently uphill...

......to reach Haverbrack....

....and then along a walled lane towards Wray Cottage,  where there is a choice of routes.

I decided to walk uphill through...

.....the woods before....

...reaching Cockshot Lane at little further on...

Cockshot Lane drops down towards the coast....

....but I soon left it to take a path towards Hazelslack which...

.....follows boundary walls....

....and past a typically detailed signpost. The signpost throughout this part of Cumbria almost all have precise details of where the path is heading.

There's some extremely boggy ground before..

....crossing some limestone outcrops...

....just before the lane to Hazelslack is reached.

At Hazelslack the first signpost to Arnside appears - nearly at journey's end.

Hazelslack Tower is a ruined pele tower probably from late 14th century.

Beyond Hazelslack the path to Arnside goes past a small caravan site and then...

.....drops to another lane before...

....heading straight across Arnside Moss.

The path was indistinct but there is a bridge across...

....one of the drainage channels..

....leading to another very muddy path....

....and a level crossing over the railway line,

 

Then it's simply a case of walking up into Arnside along the streets to a view of...

.....the viaduct over the Kent estuary.

When I arrived it was almost low tide so Morecambe Bay's quicksands were exposed.

The promenade at Arnside

Journey's end is approximately 117 miles (202km) from Teesmouth.

Next day the tide was in and the estuary looked much more like the sea. Beyond the water on the far side of the estuary is Grange over Sands.