This is a lovely and very gentle walk beside the River Lune, with excellent chances of seeing a wide range of birdlife, especially in summer when the sand martins and swallows return, and you can see kingfisher, oystercatcher and geese at any time of year.
The River Lune is a County Biological Heritage Site, and rises far away on the north-facing slopes of the Howgills, from where it heads west towards Tebay before being deflected through the delectable Lune Gorge, past Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale to Hornby and Caton. It finally finds the sea south of Lancaster, feeding into the wide expanse of Morecambe Bay.
From the edge of the car park (which gets busy, so come early) there is a splendid view over the Lune towards Ingleborough, one painted by Turner. From this viewpoint bear right down a sloping pathway (ignore nearby steps), and at the bottom turn left across an old viaduct onto the trackbed of the former Lancaster-to-Wennington railway line, now part of the River Lune Millennium Park.
The Turner view, Crook o’ Lune
The River Lune Millennium Park stretches from Bull Beck near Caton to Salt Ayre in Lancaster, and offers leisure and everyday transport opportunities with linked footpaths and cycleways. The route is decorated with unusual and thought provoking artworks.
The River Lune is noted for its salmon, and September and October are the best times to see them, along with the many sea trout also found in the river. The Environment Agency monitors fish stocks, and in 1996 over 2000 salmon and sea trout went over Forge Weir. In the 1960s a disease hit salmon nationally, and while local stocks have yet to fully recover, the number of salmon is rising steadily. These days, over 13,000 fish are recorded annually in the Lune.
Cross the viaduct and continue a short distance further to a path on the right. This heads through a gate and then curves immediately right beside a wall to a narrow footbridge immediately below the viaduct. Cross another footbridge to gain the true left bank of the Lune (i.e. the left bank when looking downstream.)
Simply follow the riverbank upstream, keeping an eye open for the birdlife all around, and when you reach a shallow weir, spend a moment or two seeing if you can spot fish trying to leap up the mini-waterfall. A short way further on, the path briefly moves inland to cross a footbridge spanning Artle Beck, a hazard that until recent times you had to chance on stepping stones.
Continue past an aqueduct, and then cling to the course of the river as it sweeps round, with Ingleborough, one of Yorkshire’s ‘Three Peaks’, in the far distance. After passing through a gate, the riverside path becomes a wide stony track that soon moves away from the river, heading towards the village of Caton.
First recorded in the Domesday book, the name ‘Caton’ is believed to stem from either ‘Kati’ (Old Norse) or ‘C(e)atta’ (Old English), probably the name of an early settler. The Romans were present here, as evidenced by the discovery of a Roman milestone in Artle Beck. In more recent times, following the industrial revolution, the village grew to support several cotton mills – for example, Low Mill off Mill Lane.
Beside the Lune
Just before reaching the main road, turn right back onto the old railway trackbed. Later, when the trackbed reaches a surfaced lane (Caton lies just to the left if you want to go in search of refreshment), keep forward along the trackbed, which will guide you back to the start at Crook o’ Lune.
Extension
Walkers wanting to make a little more of this route can begin at Skerton Bridge on the north side of Lancaster and follow a surfaced path alongside the river, heading out of the city. This eventually runs beneath the M6 motorway and passes the village of Halton on the opposite side of the river, and continues quite delightfully all the way to Crook o’ Lune. To do this will effectively double the walk.
WALK 2
Crook o’ Lune–Aughton–Hawkshead
| Start/Finish | Crook o’ Lune car park (refreshments; toilets) (SD521647) |
| Distance | 11.5km (7 miles) |
| Total Ascent | 185m (605ft) |
| Terrain | Riverside and field paths, some road walking, some trackless pastures; be aware that the river often floods, making this route impassable |
| Maps | Explorer OL41 (Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale) |
The most northerly walk in this guidebook, this enjoyable circuit takes in some of the countryside of Halton-with-Aughton parish, north of the River Lune. It begins in company with the river, but then climbs up to the village of Aughton before finding a way across mainly farmland to Hawkshead and Halton Park. The Lune and the woodlands to the north are invariably teeming with birdlife – woodpeckers (great spotted and green), buzzard, curlew, oystercatcher, common sandpiper, sand martin, goosander, kingfisher, grey wagtail, tree creeper, chiffchaff, chaffinch, and the usual array of hedgerow birds.
You begin from the Crook o’ Lune car park. This is a popular spot that serves a number of walks, so don’t arrive late in the day expecting to find parking space – come early.
Go to the back of the car park, towards some picnic tables and a painting tableau. The tableau represents Turner’s painting of the view up the Lune – a view into which you are about to walk. Follow the path to the right, but as you reach a fence go to the left of it, to descend steps and so gain the true right bank of the Lune at a gate.
Now simply follow the bank of the Lune, keeping your eyes open for the birdlife that populates the river, and indeed the salmon and sea trout that now find their way upstream (see Walk 1 for more information).
Continue beyond a low weir – often a good place to spot fish leaping. A short way on and the riverbank narrows, the route running on to cross a stile at the foot of a wooded slope and then go on into woodland. You leave the woodland at a gate and press on across a large pasture, crossing a stream by a footbridge, and then keeping on towards the Thirlmere Aqueduct, piping water from the Lake District to Manchester.
Pass beneath the aqueduct and continue along the riverbank to locate another step-stile, entering Lawson’s Wood and immediately crossing another footbridge. Lawson’s Wood is one of a number – Cole, Shire Oaks, Burton, Lawson’s and Walks Woods – forming Aughton Woods, a reserve owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust. Note A short stretch of the Lune Valley Ramble through Aughton Nature Reserve has been affected by landslip, and is closed.
Aughton Woods is one of the finest areas of ancient woodland in Lancashire, and largely made up of sessile oak and ash, but with alder, elm, birch, holly, hazel and small-leaved lime also present. The lime, which has survived in the ravines and along the western and southern edges of the wood, is a relic of the woodlands that covered much of this landscape centuries ago, and, like the bluebells you find in the wood, an indicator of ancient woodland. There are some sycamores, too, but these are gradually being intentionally replaced with oak because they are not normally found in this area.
In winter there are some fine spreads of snowdrops, but in spring bluebells carpet the woodland floor. The woodland, technically described as ‘ancient semi-natural’, has at least 30 abandoned charcoal hearths – circular platforms levelled out of the hillside. The clue to the wood’s previous usage as a provider of charcoal is in the many