White Hill & Baxton Fell
1
SD713523 From the car park by the River Hodder at Slaidburn walk up to the village and continue ahead at the crossroads by the youth hostel and pub. After 400m, just beyond the health centre, take a path on the right into a wood with river on the right. Walk to a ladder stile at a wall and continue to a pair of gates at the end of the wood. Keep ahead across the field and cross a ladder stile at the next wall. Continue ahead to a gate and a small stone footbridge. Cross the next field to a gap in the far corner, follow the wall and turn 90° right onto a green lane to a gate at Myttons. Go left on a tarmac track for 200m to a lane.
2
SD700535 Turn right here and follow this past Higher Wood House to a gate below the great sweep of open moorland. Turn immediately right onto the concrete track, go through a gate and follow the track as it bends left above the western side of the broad empty valley of Croasdale Brook. Go through a gate, or adjacent ladder stile, and continue ahead as the track (originally a Roman road) becomes rougher underfoot and descends to cross a bridge. The track now climbs uphill, with old quarry workings on the left, to a sharp bend marked by a memorial to the famous Pendle witches. Continue for another 1km to a gate on the watershed.
3
SD667574 Don’t go through the gate – turn right and follow the fence leading steeply uphill and pass between some tall peat banks as the ground begins to level off. The fence bends right to a pair of kissing gates at a junction of fences, with some rock outcrops nearby. Keep the fence on your left and walk ahead to another junction after 400m. Go through the kissing gate and turn left, with fence on left. Walk ahead for 200m and take care to avoid two or three swampy sections. Hop over the fence to the trig point on White Hill – the second highest point in the Forest of Bowland.
4
SD673587 A strange concrete tower stands 100m to the west – built as a survey point when the pipeline from Haweswater was tunnelled under the hills. From here, head south-west over the moor back to the rock outcrops by two kissing gates, but if conditions are boggy return via the fences. Retrace your steps back to the track, go straight over and walk uphill with a fence on your right. There is little in the way of a path but keep going until the fence turns sharp left at the top of Baxton Fell.
5
SD672560 Follow the fence, now directly due south, for 1km, though pools mean you may need to cross the fence once or twice. At Dunsop Head the fence is replaced by a sturdy wall. Keep going and follow this over easier ground at Wisket Hill to the trig point on Burn Fell.
6
SD674535 Turn round and head north-east (no path) for 600m to meet a grassy track on the south of Dunsop Brook. Go downhill and sharp right before a wall. This leads south to a gate left. Go down, cross a culvert by tall pines and take the gate ahead (cottage on the right). Follow waymarks, via another gate, and walk down to gate at the bottom of the field. Go left on a narrow lane, past pools, to a T-junction.
7
SD693530 Turn left and walk along the lane back to Slaidburn.