Forest of Bowland

Sunday, 28th August 2011
16.7km (10.3 miles) - 5hr 20mins
OL14 - Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale

In my youth the Forest of Bowland was forbidden country, privately owned and inaccessible to all. So, when Country Walking Magazine published a walk in the area I could not resist - in retrospect I wish I had ! Described as a "challenging" walk it proved to be at the edge of our capability and, whilst the weather contributed to the challenge, it became a chore rather than a challenge. Looking back we probably shouldn't have set off for this exposed and wild location given the amount of rain that has fallen. Our reward was trudging through peat bog, almost shin deep in places which extended the time taken to cross the fell and turned "challenging" into strenuous.
Anyway, the route. We parked at a surprisingly populated layby just North-East of Dunsop Bridge (GR SD632511). The first part of the route was on well-made tracks and took us alongside Langden Beck to the strangely named LangdenCastle, a ruined shed, and the discovery of a cache. It was here that we encountered our first downpour of the day, but luckily we were inside the "castle" and escaped it. Clear skies ensued as we went further up the valley before turning up Fiendsdale (GR SD 598500). Here, a clearly defined path climbed the side of the dale gradually climbing 200 mtrs to Fiendsdale Head (GR SD588484)

It was at this point (moving from footpath to open access land) that the going got really tough.  The landscape was open fell with peat hags  and shin deep peat bog made the 4/5 kilometres extremely hard and slow moving. Added to this was driving rain and an absolutely howling gale. It was a great pity since the scenery was aboslutely magnificent, especially as we climbed to the high point of the walk with the cairn at 520mtrs.
Eventually, we reached the trig point at the top of Totridge (GR SD635487), although by this point the wind was so strong it almost blew us over. Both agreed that the preceding section was not enjoyable and was a slog through the relentless bog picking our way around the pools at the bottom of the hags.
From Totridge the route went virtually straight down hill (another challenge since both our calves and thighs were aching by this point) and dropped us to Hareden Farm where two very weary people then struggled along the riverbank and back to the car.
Certainly, the most strenuous walk we have done this year. As stated, given the amount of rain that had fallen in the preceding days we can't really complain about the conditions and I'm sure that looking back the magnificent countryside will outshadow the peat bogs !  We all live and learn !
Group of photographs available from this link - amazingly this doesn't show the extent of the peat hags and bogs. In fact, it looks quite idyllic but be warned the middle section was hard going !