It is lovely to travel and explore pastures new, but it us always lovely to return home, and never was that truer than now, returning as we are to the beautiful Ribble Valley.
Gisburn Forest is the perfect place to see all of the natural elements that make up the Forest of Bowland, one of 46 areas of outstanding national beauty in Britain, whose sparsely inhabited heather moorland, blanket bogs and woodlands cover 803 square kilometers of Lancashire's (and a little bit of Yorkshire's) rural land.
With an area of just under 18 square kilometres, Gisburn Forest has waymarked walking routes and cycle paths to suit all ages and abilities, and its 13km Stocks Circular Path gives a flavour of all of the elements of the wider Forest of Bowland whilst also promising beautiful views of Stocks Reservoir.
We visited on a sunny Tuesday in late September, with Google weather promising us a dry afternoon - don't worry we took our raincoats - and left the carpark bathed in warm sunshine with the lake on our left. We were immediately immersed in typical lancashire woodland, the leaves of Oak, Rowan, Hazel and Birch just beginning their seasonal transformation from a rich green canopy to their autumnal colours.
Within 10 minutes it was raining and we took shelter in one if the many 'hides'. This one should have looked out across the reservoir, but sadly, following the very dry summer, there was only a trickle of a stream winding its way to what was left of the reservoir in the distance - a sad sight.
Shower over and sun shining again, we continued, emerging from the forest through a gate and following a track across pastureland until we reached an old well and a ruined stone building where the sign directed us to turn left. The information point in the car park tells you that there are a lots of ruined buildings because a village was abandoned here to make way for the reservoir.
The path then took us down into the valley, zig-zagging across a field to a bridge which took us across the river and then uphill again on the other side. We climbed over a stile to walk across large stone steps beside a small woodland. A dark, ominous looking, cloud was approaching so the coats went on again, and only just in time as we were pelted by hailstones, forcing us to take shelter once again. A few minutes later, the cloudburst was over and we stepped out of the woods into sunshine once again, our persistence rewarded with one of the most complete and beautiful rainbows I have ever seen.
The terrain changed as we walked up onto moorland high above the basin where the reservoir should have been, the path flat and wide taking us past grazing cows and sheep, peat bogs and trickling streams towards another patch of trees - and at last, a glimpse of water as the reservoir came into view. This time we skirted the woods, keeping the trees on our left, arriving at Stocks, past the house and through the memorial woodland.
Back beside the water, it's levels alarmingly low and it's usually floating piers beached, we continued on towards the dam, crossing to the other side and passing through a gate to follow a narrow path along the opposite side of the reservoir across grassland. From here we could see the island in the middle of the water, rising much higher above the water line than usual, and the impact of the drought on the usual level of the water which now is covering only a fraction of the area than usual.
The end of the walk took us away from the water, across grazing land, through newly planted forest nurseries and then through mature woodland, across the road bridge and back to the carpark.
All in all a lovely walk, showcasing the varied habitats of Gisburn Forest and the wider Forest of Bowland, but it is quite worrying to see how depleted the water levels are, and is something we all need to keep at the front of our minds throughout the winter, as it is not a problem that is going to be quickly resolved.
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