A EASY CIRCULAR WALK THROUGH BARBONDALE, FOLLOWING THE BARBON BECK WITH STUNNNING VIEWS OF BARBON LOW FELL

📍Distance: 4.5 miles in total

📍Difficulty: Easy 

📍Elevation: 429 ft

📍Map: OL2: Yorkshire Dales - Southern & Western Area

📍Info: Tracks and quiet lanes for the entire route.  Can be a little bit boggy underfoot in parts after heavy rain

📍Dog Friendly Level: Off lead available in woodland.  Please assess gate by gate.

📍Parking: The Village Hall, New Road, Barbon LA6 2LL or what-3-words: sprayed.sprinter.selling

Barbon is a small village located just a few miles north of Kirkby Lonsdale.  It has parking available in the Village Hall Car Park (please take some cash to leave in the honesty box).  It has both a well know deli and dog friendly pub.  

From the car park, turn left and head into the village.  At the war memorial follow the road round to the right, past the Barbon Inn, a traditional 17th century Coaching Inn, which is also dog friendly.  Turn right just after the pretty St Bartholomew Church.

St Bartholomew's Church, Barbon

Following the track, through the gate next to the cattle grid and over the bridge, follow the tarmac lane as it weaves up the hill. Keeping right as the road bends you will reach a fork in the road, where a track leads off into the woodland behind a gate.  Take this path which follows the beck through ancient woodland.  Apparently in spring time it is covered in beautiful bluebells.  

At reaching a gate, the woodland opened up slightly, so dogs were popped back on leads in case of sheep.  

Through a gate or two, and a slight incline you will reach a gorgeous place to stop, the half way point, to enjoy the view, listen to the flow of the beck and maybe eat a sandwich or two if the weather is nice enough.  We walked the route on a wet day in March, but I can imagine this particular spot would get a lot more visitors on a sunny day.  

It is at this spot you can make a decision as to whether to turn around and return the way you came, or continue on the route back to the village  over the wooden footbridge and via the quiet country lane.

You will have been able to see throughout the route though the woodland the lane on the right and so can assess how busy it was and if you want to walk it.  Although a single track lane for vehicles, the lane is plenty wide enough to accommodate walkers and dogs on leads, with plenty of places to step in if necessary.  We had only about 3 vehicles and a couple of farming quads pass us on the route back on the lane.  Plus after heavy rain, there are some incredible waterfalls to see coming down from the fells.

Barbon Wooden Footbridge

As you enjoy the fell and valley views on the lane, you will pass a stone built sheep fold on your right, built by internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy as part of a cumbrian project.  

A shooting lodge in the style of a French Chateau, built in1862, its architecture is definitely not typical of the usual stone built properties in the area.  

Continue down the lane keeping straight on, and as the landscape changes, you will pass through a cattlegrid, and onto a walled country lane.  

You can continue straight down the lane back into the village passing the church again, or take a pretty dog leg (our route includes this) turning left as the road forks at the 16% gradient warning road sign.  

You will follow the road round, passing the unusually painted pretty Park House and all its gardens.  It's here you need to look out for a hidden footpath sign on the left.  Going through the farm gate, you will cross a field with an impressive treehouse and aerial walkway in it, and follow the footpath that bears left.  

From this vantage point you will be able to view Barbon Manor on your right through the woodland you previously walked through.  A shooting lodge in the style of a French Chateau,  built in1862, its architecture is definitely not typical of the usual stone built properties in the area in the style of a French ChateauAs itBuilt in 1862 Barbon Manor is a grade two-listed building built in an Italian and French style dating back to the middle of the 19th Century but it’s