TRAWDEN Forest

In some ways this is a favourite walk - partly because it goes up Boulsworth to the highest point in the South Pennines - Lad Law, with wonderful views and relatively few other visitors, but also because it goes through our premier tourist attraction - Wycoller with its three old bridges - clam, clapper and packhorse. Pendle's best waterfall (both in height and beauty) is also in the parish - but you need to make a detour of just over a kilometre to see it. There is also what is possibly the oldest man made item in the borough - well hidden away and hard to find - the Elk & Bison near the summit. Whether the carving is 5,000 or 200 years old is conjecture.

Not a route for a bad day as it can be boggy and slippery in places although with the marker posts in place on the hill it would be hard to get lost. Boulsworth is open access land so for those with a taste for moorland wandering a wonderful day can be had walking its full length (best from west to east in my view). One thing I really must emphasise is that it is a hard walk even without going up Boulsworth.  To include that and Dove Stones beyond makes it an extremely hard day and, for most people, it would be more sensible to use one of the many, shorter and more straightforward, ways to Boulsworth's foot. To use the open access land to actually walk all the bounds of Trawden would be beyond me now!

We start the walk at Ball Grove because there are buses to there as well as a car park shown on the map but you could use the huge Wycoller car park just past point 7 on the route.

Start:                Ball Grove car park, Cotton Tree (908402)

Length:             16k (see below)

Height Gain:      400m

Time:                7 hours

Grade:              Hard

The length (and thus time) includes the ascent to Lad Law only. Avoiding this it is 13k (6 hours) and still Hard. Including Dove Stones adds slightly over 3k (say 20k - 8.5 hours makes it Very Hard, easily the hardest in Pendle). Fully beating the bounds (see the Footnote on the route descrition) only adds about 4k but more than 2 hours because of the hard going, and is only for the very fit and experienced. At my speed it would need 11 to 12 hours but, I suppose, if you're fit enough to do it, you would take less!

The following links will open in a new plain window for easy printing.

GO HERE  for the route description

GO HERE for the map

To see each picture full size in a new window click on the description or thumbnail below. There are far more pictures than on any other walk for the reasons given in the first paragraph!

	Sculptures in the grounds of Little Moss
	And another in the woods beyond
	Two of the posts showing the way across Deerstone Moor
	The boundary stone on the Under Boulsworth Road - the "path" behind would take you up Boulsworth by rugged open access land
	Open access sign at the start of the "permissive" path up to Lad Law - the easiest way to get there
	Lumb Spout - Pendle's highest and prettiest waterfall, a considerable detour from this walk
	The Abbot Stone - over half way up Boulsworth, the going is less steep from here on
	One of the Walking Festival's leaders at the summit
	A little south of the summit is this stone pointing towards Stoodley Pike some 12k away but clearly visible on a good day
	This dragons head is a considerable distance north of both the summit and descent path
	The well hidden away Elk and Bison - for an authoritative account of their carving GO HERE
	Fosters Leap - the gap is slowly widening but can still be jumped by the young and (slightly) foolish
	Fosters Leap from above
	Vaccary walls and the new Panopticon
	The Panopticon and its reflecting ball (already vandalised twice) - art or monstrosity?
	The old pack horse track which would have been used by the Brontes. A lady (now in her 90's) told me a few years ago that half the children in Colne were conceived here!
	Vaccary walls in the pack horse track
	Wycollers two bridges
	The pack horse bridge
	And the clapper bridge
	The clam bridge - further up the Dene
	As is this delightful waterfall in Smithy Clough just before Parson Lee
	Wycoller Hall - possibly the Bronte's Ferndean Manor was based on this building