Settle to Cleatop

Start

Greenfoot car park, Settle, BD24 9RW

Accessibility

Gentle walking with rough terrain and a steep descent into Settle

Facilities

Cafés, shops, toilets, car parks in Settle

Distance

5.5 kilometres - 2 - 3 hours

Route & Map

From Greenfoot car park head away from Settle along Lower Greenfoot Lane, with the rugby pitch on your right and Settle Library on your left.
Turn left on to Ingfield Lane and after 100 metres turn right along Brockhole Lane. This follows a stream so can be wet and muddy. At first gate carry straight ahead on what is now Watery Lane (don’t go uphill). Stay on this path until you come to a tarmac road. Half way along, you will pass a ruined barn on your left called Fish Copy Barn.
Cross over the tarmac road and go over a stile signposted ‘Mearbeck’. Cross three fields and stiles, aiming for a wooded hillside ahead. Keep close to the stone wall on your left.
Climb the final stile in left hand corner of field. A sign welcomes you to ‘Cleatop Wood’.
Continue between the stone wall on left and young trees on right and go over the stile. Turn left, follow the wall and then left through an old wooden gate into Cleatop Park.
The path climbs up through the wood. Do not go right over a small footbridge towards Mearbeck. Instead keep on the main path to the top of the hill, and where it flattens out, take the right hand track which leaves the wood by a stile over the wall - be on the lookout, you might miss it!
Head across fields towards the buildings of Lodge Farm ahead in the distance. Keep the small plantation on your left.
Go through the field gate, past Lodge Farm, turn right across bridge and then follow walled track called Lodge Lane. If you are in a hurry, take the left gate at a junction in around 100 metres and descend back down to Brockhole Lane. For a longer walk continue to climb up the walled track.
When the walled lane ends at the junction of paths, turn immediately left over the stile and follow the faint path along the left hand side of the wall with Peart Crags on your left. The path descends across two wall stiles. Keep the wall on your right and head towards the road on your right. Go through two gates and turn left onto Mitchell Lane.
Walk downhill towards Settle. Note the pinfold on your right, a circular stone pen used to gather stray animals before being reclaimed by their owners.
The road, now called Albert Hill, descends to a junction. Go left here (don’t carry on to the main road) keep high walls on your right, and descend along Green Head Lane. At the small grassy Green, see England’s smallest art gallery, housed in a red phone box.
Turn right after the Green, and immediately left through gates and down a path into Greenfoot Car Park.

Route Options

What to look for

This is a lovely walk from Settle, along green lanes, into an ancient woodland, and visits one of the world’s smallest art galleries.

3. Fantastic views over the River Ribble floodplain, known as the Long Preston Deeps. This area was once a huge lake and is now managed for wildlife – snipe, lapwing, curlew, redshank and oystercatcher. There is a bird hide at Wigglesworth to watch the birds. Below you is Settle Junction – one railway line goes to Morecambe the other heads to Settle and on to Carlisle.

4. Cleatop Wood was planted in 2003 with oak, ash, alder, birch, rowan, hazel and holly. Some planting was done by schoolchildren as a part of the Trees for All project.

5. Cleatop Park is one of the largest areas of ancient woodland in the Dales and has not been disturbed for many years. It is owned by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and includes deciduous oak, birch and beech. In springtime the forest floor is covered in wild flowers including bluebells and wood anemones.

7. Spectacular views towards Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough and into Settle.

11. In 2009 the red phone box was converted into a community art gallery. The phone box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott who also designed the Bankside Power Station in London, which now houses a slightly bigger gallery, the Tate Modern!

info@peopleandthedales.org

Settle to Cleatop

What to look for