The Ribble Way Part 5: Wigglesworth to Gisburn, from Rams to Deer, and Huge Improvements in Stile!

It’s the last weekend in September, and we arrive back in Wigglesworth (having parked the lower car at Gisburn animal market) to glorious sunny weather and high hopes of more Ribble-dipping despite today’s part of the Ribble Way only passing next to the river on a couple of brief occasions. The lack of time actually spent by the river does get rather annoying at times when no good reason can be said to divert the route other than the whims of some landowners sending us over walls and fences and across fields away from the river, which add extra hassles and don't always offer fabulous views to compensate for it, which is a real shame as this is a spectacular area which we feel rather aggrieved at being prevented from roaming whither we will…

Whilst some of us do get a brief and rather shallow dip, we also fill our time with wandering around looking for the less-than-clear route, accusations of poaching, wading through fields recently sprayed with slurry, encountering every kind of animal from wide-headed rams to horses and pigs and birds and happily rather more laid-back Bovines than we’ve encountered in recent weeks…
…and we also enjoy a diversion from our route which brings us a breath-taking encounter with a deer, and later enjoy what must be one of the most beautiful views over the River Ribble we’ve seen so far…


First of all, we head back through Wigglesworth Hall Farm on the permissive path down from the village to find the Ribble Way once more...


...which shows us the last glimpses of Pen-y-ghent we're likely to see.
You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them...
The wide-headed rams who saw us off the premises last week are still keen to show us who’s boss…



…and we pause to consider whether their unusually wide heads might in some ways be a necessary counter-weight to other parts of their anatomy…

Once we turn right/due East below the farm onto the Ribble Way once more, we soon reach Wigglesworth Beck where there is some confusion regarding the route.



We know not to cross the bridge as the Ribble Way runs along the south bank of Wigglesworth Beck, but there is a wire fence into a field as one option, following the Beck eastwards towards its meeting with the Ribble, and there is also a wooden fence over to the Beck itself, but no stile or gate onto either route to make it clear which we are supposed to follow…



So we decide that the wooden fence must denote the route, so shove the dog beneath a gap into the Beck itself then climbed over the fence and called her round to the bank again.
After setting off alongside the Beck...



...and seeing the work which has been taking place here to reduce bankside erosion, we decide we are in danger of damaging the new grass planted on the bankside matting and, looking ahead as far as we can see around the curve of the Beck, we can see no stile showing this is the correct route but what looks like might be a stile from further along in the field running next to us into the next field along.

So we retrace our steps back to the bridge, climb back over the wooden fence (& shove the dog back into the Beck) and then we climb over the barbed wire fence to walk along in the field itself.

As we approach the far end of the field and can confirm the stile we thought we could see, it becomes obvious that this was the right decision...



...and as the stile is quite a low one, the dog manages pretty well. A stile or gate at the entrance onto the Ribble Way into this field in the first place at Wigglesworth Hall Farm would have saved alot of hassle, and been much easier to get ourselves over as we had to lift children and dog and ourselves over a barbed-wire topped fence where there should really be a stile onto the correct route, ensuring all necessary appendages remained attached and unbarbed without too much difficulty.

Walking along the valley from Wigglesworth Hall to Cow Bridge we find the weather, the views, and the walk are all really lovely - and we even get a good long look at a beautiful electric blue Kingfisher as he shoots out beneath the bank of the Beck and flies right past us upstream…


Wigglesworth Beck from the right side of the fence...


Long Preston and a brief glimpse of the River Ribble below...


Wigglesworth Beck looking upstream back towards the Farm, the Kingfisher having whizzed past us upstream far faster than my trigger finger...


Stunning views across the Ribble valley... could this be the last view of Ingleborough as we head further down the Ribble Way?


The upland floodplain below Long Preston is an important wetland habitat...



...but also has signs of an English autumn alongside the last vestiges of summer...


...with summer grasses in seed...

...late summer flowers...

...such as buttercups...


...and water forget-me-nots...


...and the bright red berries in the hedgerows.

Along this stretch we actually come across an opening gate, which pleases us and the dog alot!



...but it isn't long before we encounter our more usual kinds of stile...



...where normal service is resumed, poor Muddy alternately hauled over, through, and under various fences and stiles...



After walking along the raised bank path above the marshy wetlands which run back from the Ribble floodplain here below Long Preston, we eventually meet the Ribble itself…


River Ribble just above Cow Bridge, looking upriver towards Long Preston Deeps.

Today’s stretch of the Ribble Way only allows proper access to the river here as it runs towards Cow Bridge: any other contact between footpath and river along the Ribble Way between Wigglesworth and Gisburn is restricted to crossing the river over Paythorne Bridge. As it turns out, we do get to see a little more of the Ribble before the day is finished...

In the meantime, this is our first contact with the River Ribble today and Muddy doesn’t need any other encouragement than seeing the river –



- and Darren isn’t far behind her!



I actually brought my swimming gear this week, as has Chris, but it just doesn’t look deep enough to actually swim! Darren wades under the bridge and attempts a brief swim against the flow but confirms it’s really too shallow, so gets out again.



Much to Muddy's disappointment!



Nonetheless, I’m raring to go now so we walk back upriver a short distance as I’m determined to give it a go if possible and it does look a little deeper here. The girls have beaten me to it and are already in there paddling but get out straight away because the stones are too slippery; the dog tries to swim out after them in a straight line but nearly gets washed downstream with the strength of the flow; so I put my boots back on and mull it over while we sit on the banks of the Ribble with a slice of home-made Pennine honey and Yorkshire butter flapjack and a drink of water listening to the River passing by...



After a while lounging by the water, our decision not to linger any longer is made when a bloke comes charging down the path from Cow Bridge to see if we’re poaching!

We explain we’re just enjoying spending a while by the river during our walk, and assure him that we have no intention of poaching the Salmon or putting them off breeding (although given the state of my feet it’s perhaps as well these stayed out of the river!) and we set off on our way again.

On the road just up from Cow Bridge, the Ribble Way takes a left/Southerly turn along Todmanshaw Lane to follow a route well away from the river for pretty much most of the journey apart from the bridge at Paythorne. Grumbling amongst ourselves at the presumption that we're sitting by the River so must be poaching, and that we're having to leave the river behind us for the rest of today's walk, we are cheered up by a gorgeous dapple grey horse which sticks its head over the fence for a fuss. After scoffing both of the girls’ apples, the horse neighs and whinnies at us as to return with the rest of our picnic as we walk up towards Todmanshaw and New Laithe and Deep Dale...





As we reach Deep Dale Wood, the Ribble Way passes into a field full of fabulous pigs who take it in turns to either ignore us as they snort and rummage in the earth or mob us for snacks.



We refuse to give in to even the most pigletish appeals...



...and leaving the Deep Dale midfield to it, we pass through to the next field. As we stand to admire the view (and try to ignore the stink of the freshly-sprayed slurry on the field), we see a deer by the edge of the wood. We walk towards her slowly and then stand close enough to watch her as she becomes aware of us and stops what she is doing to watch us.


You can click on the picture to enlarge it
There passes a truly delightful few minutes where we watch her watching us, with no sounds but the breeze in the trees and the birds singing in the woods. After a few minutes, another deer walks into view along the edge of the Wood towards the first one. She walks towards the second deer and lets him know we are there, then they both set off across the field at a fabulously graceful speed and out of sight. Fantastic.



As we are close to Deep Dale Wood by now, we decide to walk towards the brow of the hill to see if we can see the river below. At the edge of the woods is a stile so we decide to see if we can get down to the river through the Wood. This is indeed possible, so we take an unexpected diversion down through Deep Dale Wood – and a beautiful woodland it is too -



- and eat our picnic by the flow of the Ribble and watch the huge salmon jumping in the pools further upstream...



After our lunch, we walk back up through Deep Dale Wood and rejoin the Ribble Way as it passes in a South-Easterly direction from the Wood to Middle Laith. (Our unexpectedly beautiful sojourn at Deep Dale must have been a good omen as our trip to the other Deepdale just 2 days later saw a 5-1 win over Southampton!)

The route may be somewhat strong in the olfactory department, due to the slurry-spreading, but it is nonetheless made infinitely more pleasurable by the views and the fauna and flora we pass by on our way...


...from autumn tints in the trees...


...to upland wetlands...


...and funghi...


...Red Campion...


...bees still busy storing for the coming winter...


...and Lapwings sweeping gloriously across the fields.

The Ribble Way just before Middle Laith has been diverted but it took us a good deal of wandering about to find the correct route: now, instead of passing to the right/South of Middle Laith Farm, the path follows the hedge towards the left/Northern edge of the farm, passing through two good accessible kissing gates to the North then the South-East of the farm and onto Brook Lane.


What a real pleasure NOT having to haul the dog and ourselves over steep wall stiles or barbed wire fences!


Brook Lane on the Ribble Way at Low Scale.

The views from the Ribble Way between Middle Laith and Ged Beck Laith, passing Halton West along the way, are fabulous...






Pendle Hill creeping ever nearer...



...and the local residents are always as interested in us as we are in them -


- sometimes alot more friendly than we have experienced in previous weeks on the Ribble Way too!

At Halton West, the Ribble Way passes along the road for a few dozen yards to the West before turning South again towards Ged Beck Laithe.

This next section, between the road through Halton West and reaching Ged Beck Moor, again involves a good deal of wandering around trying to find the right way, which is really annoying. Consulting the map in minute detail eventually gets us in the right places, but there are few if any markers (apart from one very unhelpfully situated on a fence pointing vaguely towards a corner of a field where there is no means of exit), the gates we do have to pass through do not open, nor are there any stiles, nor any way of passing the dog beneath the gate, so we have to resort to climbing & lifting dogs & children over as usual.

After crossing the first footbridge over Ged Beck, we cross a dilapidated old footbridge and force open a gate which has clearly not been opened for centuries before we realise the second footbridge we need to cross is back in the field we've just left but further round the Beck... where all the cows are... so we negotiate our way through the inquisitive cows - who suddenly set off at a rather alarming gallop but luckily in the opposite direction to ourselves - and we then try to avoid the boggiest of the bogs and cross the second footbridge onto Ged Beck Moor...









Once we have crossed the second footbridge, we then find ourselves wandering in a hopeful direction across to Paythorne Moor – and wading through yet another field of slurry which leads to a comment about the problems of access to the Ribble when instead of being allowed to walk alongside a beautiful, clean, bubbling river we are forced to wade through fields of dung...

After a hopeful wander in what the map suggests might be a good direction, we suddenly spot a way off Paythorne Moor, and find that the next series of fence boundaries are marked by NEW gates – which OPEN and everything! There are Ribble Way markers in all the right places, and a much easier route to get us down to Paythorne village. Have we passed into Lancashire perchance?



We find to our great relief that this much-improved access pretty much continues for most of the rest of today's journey. It will be interesting to see if access problems become less of an irritation over the coming weeks too…

After a very pleasant and easy walk down to Paythorne, we reluctantly resist the very appealing-looking pub which faces the spot where the Ribble Way emerges onto the road through the village, turn left/south-east, and walk down to Paythorne Bridge.
Unfortunately, this is the point where my camera has suddenly re-set itself to taking super-megabyte photos which I have reduced as much as possible on my trusty old pc but will still take an AGE to upload onto the blog, so you will have to content yourselves with a few brief glimpses of the rest of our day on the Ribble Way - and I strongly urge you to go and see Paythorne Bridge and Castle Haugh (between Paythorne Bridge and Gisburn) for yourselves!

Paythorne Bridge is a very attractive stone bridge across a slow meander of the River Ribble, and we pause for a while, leaning over to watch the Ribble lazily wending her way beneath us…



…and on downstream to Gisburn.


Here we have a decision to make: do we stay on the Ribble Way to Gisburn, or do we take a significant diversion?

Here at Paythorne Bridge, the Ribble Way leaves the road at the southern corner of Paythorne Bridge and moves in a southerly direction across Castle Haugh Hill (all well and good) but then meets the A682 then the A59 for about a mile and a half into Gisburn. It isn’t clear from the map whether the Ribble Way runs alongside these busy roads or along the road itself and none of us fancy walking along these roads as they’re very busy indeed. Either way, it will certainly be a lot noisier and a lot less pleasant.

We study the map and debate whether to leave the Ribble Way to its southern run altogether and follow the public footpath which runs across the north side of the Ribble. This sets off in a westerly direction from the north side of Paythorne Bridge across Bank Close Laith, then turns south-west & then full south towards Gisburn on the north/west side of the Ribble, crossing through Moor House Farm and Windy Pike on the way, and entering Gisburn over Gisburn Bridge.

But as we have set out to walk the Ribble Way, we are keen to continue to do so, and a good look at the map reveals a potential compromise: we could follow the Ribble Way from Paythorne Bridge and along the A682 for about half a mile then turn right/west and follow the public bridle path across Stock Beck and through Gisburne Park to Gisburn Bridge.
This would allow us to avoid walking along the A682 all the way into Gisburn – and avoid having to walk along the A59 at all – as well as allowing us an added glimpse of the Ribble at Gisburn Bridge whilst still following the Ribble Way across Castle Haugh and Castle Haugh Hill. This we decided to do – and were we glad we did. Castle Haugh is NOT to be missed!

From Paythorne Bridge, the Ribble Way passes through the woods next to the River, climbing all the while up towards Castle Haugh. The woods soon thin out and we had a brilliant view across towards the west as we climbed. Before you pass through the top gate onto Castle Haugh Hill and the last field before the A682, you really must walk over the brow of the hill towards the river and take stock of this glorious view.

The Ribble here curves in a delightful horseshoe bend just below Castle Haugh (presumably the site of an ancient settlement), and we sat down for a good while admiring the fantastic view of the river and woodlands and the landscape beyond which opened out in front of us.



The sun was also getting quite low on the horizon, and was lighting up the clouds in a deep golden glow - but I'm afraid you will have to content yourself with imagining how this looked - and go and see for yourself.

After relaxing over the fabulous view, we set off back to the top/southern corner of the field, and head down towards the A682. As we meet the road (roaring with traffic), we find that most of the time the Ribble Way runs along the roadside edge of the fields themselves, only a small part so far is on the grass verge of the road itself. Nonetheless, we continue with our planned diversion through Gisburne Park, taking the entrance to the bridleway as it heads off the Ribble Way to the right/west at Little Painey, some yards after a huge bunker-like storage unit by the road.

The bridleway passes into the woods at Gisburne Park, and the evidence of pheasant and grouse-rearing is very noisily everywhere. The path crosses Stock Beck on a lovely stone bridge, and the path eventually passes Gisburne Park hall (now a hospital) on the right, a very impressive Austen-esque building. The path eventually arrives at Gisburn Bridge, and again we while away a time on the bridge watching the Ribble go by before heading south and south-east down the road to Gisburn and the end of today’s Ribble Way adventures. We walked about 8 and a half miles today and had a great day with some really fantastic moments.

Next week we will be walking the Ribble Way from Gisburn to Chatburn, taking in as much of the River Ribble as we can manage – but as the Ribble Way has been diverted in recent years due to the sensitive and thoughtful generosity of the landowner between Steep Wood and Sawley Lodge who has erected a deer fence across this public right of way to prevent public access and set up get orf signs all across this beautiful section of the Ribble Way, we will be forced to divert our walk over hills and dales and fields and fences, following the new Ribble Way diversion and otherwise…

You can read more of our Ribble Way adventures by clicking on these links:
The Ribble Way
Part 1, searching for the source of the River Ribble;
Part 2, playing spot the Ribble from Ribblehead and Gearstones to Horton;
Part 3, Horton to Stainforth - Dry-Ski slopes and a swim at Selside;
Part 4, Stainforth to Wigglesworth, a good soaking.

You can contact me at savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk