Ramble from Samlesbury

Walk Waypoints

1. 1 From the Nabs Head pub car park on Nabs Head Lane, turn right, then right again onto Goosefoot Lane. Proceed on the roadway downhill for approximately 0.5miles until you cross the river by a mill on the left. Continue on the roadway uphill for 100m until you see a path on the left, which leads to a gate and stile. Cross the stile into an open field, and bear left to follow the path of the river on a worn track (observe a weir on your left). Follow the track to a gate and stile slightly away from the river, and cross. At this point, ignore the worn vehicle track to the right, and climb the steepish bank ahead on a small track between the birch trees. At the top of the bank, proceed to the edge of the woodland on the left of an open field, and continue to climb a slight gradient, keeping the open field to your right. You can see the River Darwen below on your left in Wild Bottoms Wood.
2. 2 At the top of the slope, cross the stile with the gate and stone walls at either side, and continue into the flat open field, keeping the wall and woodland next to you on the left. Find a stile in the corner at the end of the wall. At this point, the views ahead are of Darwen Tower, and to right, Hoghton Tower. Cross the stile, and continue to follow an old, unkept wall moving away from the woods. Aim for the house ahead (this is a 17th-century farmhouse called Bolton Hall and is the key grid reference check on the OS Explorer 19 map). Continue on the worn track to the farm buildings. At Bolton Hall Farm, cross the stile on the left of the gate, and proceed with the old buildings on your left. Then cross another stile next to a gate, and bear right down a well-made track. Proceed on the track until you meet a T-junction with a road; turn left, and follow the roadway downhill. Turn left at the telephone box onto Valley Road, and proceed down past the cottages. After the last building on the left, turn left, and cross the footbridge over the river.
3. 3 Follow the path over a stone stile next to a gate, and continue ahead past a house and a barn. Bear left over a stile into a field, and continue straight ahead to meet the river on your left. Follow the track up a gradient. Where the paths fork, bear right, away from river, and continue on a worn path uphill. (Take care here: there is a severe drop down to the river on your left.) As the path levels out, and the field opens out on the right, turn right into the field, then left with the treeline on your left. Continue uphill, keeping the treeline close on your left (the tops of Hoghton Tower are now visible over valley). At an exposed clay banking, bear left, and drop down on a grassy path to a small stream (conditions in this area can be very muddy). Cross the stream, then proceed up the steep banking, and bear right at the top to find a stile in a stone wall. Cross the stile, and navigate across the field to a stone house in the distance, keeping the hedgeline on your left as you approach the house.
4. 4 Find a gap at the end of the hedgeline, and go through to find a gate and stile ahead. Cross the stile, and follow the track in front of the house, with stone walls at either side. Bear left onto a well-made tarmac path, with a wall and a house on your left and a field to your right. Go through the gate posts, then turn immediately left onto a descending track between two stone walls. Continue on a stony, uneven track into Alum House Wood. As you descend, observe the wooded valley below on your left. Cross a stone bridge with a high view of the river, then bear left following the track (now going uphill) until the path levels and meets a tarmac road. Bear right on this road, and continue for 0.5miles until it meets a small road. Turn left, and follow the roadway into Nabs Head Village, with Nabs Head pub on your right at the junction.