Such a delight to get out and about after a week of rain and gales - two storms back-to-back keeping us more or less by the fireside.
But today, we awakened to a dry day and set off by car for Downham, for the start of a ten mile circular walk that would take us through Sawley, with its ruined Cistercian abbey, and along the river to Chatburn before returning to Downham.
We set off from The Assheton Arms, on a path that led us behind the pub carpark and into the fields. Walking over the hump of Downham Green and following the treeline, we then made our way downhill past Newfield Barn, over fields saturated by the recent snow and storms. The path took us through a tunnel under the railway line, before leading us down towards a tributary of the River Ribble, where we crossed via an ancient stone foot bridge.
Once across, we followed the path uphill, crossing another small stream and climbing over a stile. The track then led downhill across boggy grazing land; we crossed the A59 to be led down a path and through some woodland, so wet that it had become a small stream which we had to paddle through. Exiting the woodland and crossing one more field, the ruins of Sawley's Cistercian Abbey came into sight with Pendle Hill rising behind, the path running past it to the road where we made a stop at The Spread Eagle Inn.
After a lovely unplanned lunch (we couldnt resist the Wednesday 'fish and chips' special), we continued, following the river to Sawley Bridge, crossing it before turning left onto a footpath next to the river.
We followed the river for a hundred metres or so, before passing through a 'very' narrow gap in the wall to follow the road uphill towards Foxley Bank. Here we left the road to follow a path back down to the River Ribble, which we followed all the way to Grindleton.
The Ribble was energetic, as full as I have seen it and flowing very quickly as if in a rush to get to the sea and escape the confines of its banks.
On reaching Grindleton, we crossed the iron bridge and doubled back, walking on the other side of the river back towards Chatburn, stopping to watch an egret fishing. We followed close to the banks for a while, before the path naturally took us away and uphill into Chatburn itself, crossing the road at the church and leading us through a small housing estate before taking us back over the A59 flyover on the Downham road. We could have followed the road back into Downham, but instead opted to go across countryside, the long way round, following a path left, just beyond the flyover.
We walked through some quite magnificent logpiles (inducing serious logpile envy), downhill to the muddiest part of our walk. Here, the path was flooded badly and we had to paddle through, at one point using cut logs as stepping stones, until we reached the railway bridge.
We had now come full circle and reached the same tunnel that we passed through on our outward journey, taking us under the railway line and back over Downham Green, to the end of our walk and a drink at the pub.
A lovely walk, made even lovelier by our enforced confinement by the recent bad weather - and also by the first of the snowdrops sighted this year, always a welcome sight.
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