Start: car park, Derby Arms.  (Tel 01772 782623) From M6 Junction 31(a) follow signs for B6243 to Longridge. Bear left at mini roundabout close to Old Oak and keep ahead at the next roundabout now on Derby Road.  As the road forks after the supermarket bear right on to Chipping Lane. The Derby Arms is on the left about 1 mile from Longridge.

 

Map by kind permission of the Blackpool Gazette

 

Summary: Distance: 9k

                  Time: 2 ½ - 3 hours

                  Terrain: Very gentle walking with a short awkward section where you will be attacked by gorse bushes.

 

Directions: From the car park turn left onto Chipping Lane and walk down to the drive entrance of Ferrari's another well regarded country restaurant.

 

 Turn left into the drive. The right of way will take you onto a farm track will swing round to the right taking you past Blackmoss Farm on your right and  onto Blackmoss House approximately 35 mins after leaving the pub.

 

Here as the track leads to the property cross a stile on the left of the gate and keep ahead with the fence and property on your right. After the next stile, now with a fence on your left, the path dips down to cross a culverted stream and then rises gently towards Hesketh End.

 

 With Hesketh End to the right turn left after a metal gate.

 

Now on a track, for a short while, bear right at the next gate to cut a corner of the field.  

 

Keep ahead and aim for a gate in the fence to the left roughly in line with Parlick  Fell a prominent hill.  

 

 

Immediately after the gate turn right.

 

With a hedge on your right the footpath will bring you onto Hesketh Lane. Turn left.

 

Walk along the lane for 200 metres and then turn left over a stile next to a gate. Almost immediately cross the next stile and turn right.

With a fence on your right continue to a wooden footbridge. After crossing it begin a gentle ascent towards Crow Trees Farm.

 

 The footpath crosses the farm drive and then enters a plantation of young trees. Continue  along a track to where it dips down to a metal gate.

Keep ahead in the next field picking up  a hedge on your left. Just before a wood turn left over a stile and then enter the wood by another on your right to drop down steeply to a footbridge.

 

 Exit the wood by a second footbridge. The footpath traverses a pasture to reach Gib Hey farm.

 After a double metal gate pass the farm house and cross a stile on the left. This next section will take a degree of determination to complete. The right of way passes through a thicket of dense gorse to reach a field corner near a barn.

 

The path drops down on a track to cross a brook before climbing up to the farm of Elmridge. Go through a metal gate that leads into the yard.

 

 The drive quickly leads down to a lane. Turn left. Keep on this lane for over a kilometre. (Approx 20 mins) Just after Gill Bridge where the lane crosses the River Loud, bear right to a stile leading into a field. (Do not go directly right)

Cross this field  and the next diagonally right to a hedge and turn right when you reach it. Continue to a dilapidated bridge across a brook.

 

 Keep ahead to pass a substantial barn on your right.

 

 Traverse the field beyond with a hedge on your left to reach a metal gate on the left. 

 

 Go through it (or over it as it was firmly secured when we checked the route) and follow the track down to the right of a property and then take a stile on the left.

 

 From here cross the field to reach Chipping Lane. Turn left for the Derby Arms.