Stainforth to Langcliffe

Start

Stainforth National Park Car Park BD24 9PF

Accessibility

Low level walk, but can be muddy and slippery in wet weather with difficult stiles

Facilities

Toilets in Stainforth National Park car park, pubs in Stainforth

Distance

5.5 kilometres - 2 - 3 hours

Route & Map

This walk is full of surprises: from the best preserved Hoffmann kiln in the country to a secret mill pond and a famous waterfall where you may see salmon leaping in autumn.

Turn right out of car park and right at T junction. Pass the Craven Heifer pub and continue straight until B6479 where you turn left.
Walk along road for 50 metres until stile on your left to ’Langcliffe’. Cross stile and follow a wide path through the fields, ford a stream and climb a ladder stile. Continue with Stainforth Scar on your left until you reach a step stile into a woodland.
Turn right at information board and follow path to view tops of three lime kiln bowls (a bit like chimneys), on your right behind a wall. Descend first set of steep steps and admire the Triple Draw Kiln on your right - don’t go down to railway level.
Turn away from the kiln and cross stone bridge over stream and wall. Descend steps around a tree and reach the impressive Hoffmann Lime Kiln - turn left around the outside and then go inside via one of the arches.
Leave kiln at the large information panel, cross yard, and exit through a gate onto a road. Head straight on and look up to the trees on your left to see the stone towers that supported two Spencer Kilns. Note the weigh-bridge office along road.
Continue until just before the railway bridge, and take footpath on your left to ‘Langcliffe’. Ascend rising track, and continue through four fields until the walled lane where you turn right along Pike Lane and pass Langcliffe Community Gardens on your right.
At St. John the Evangelist church in Langcliffe turn right, go past Village Institute and at the drinking fountain turn right between houses until you reach the B6479.
At the main road turn left and walk along the pavement for about 20 metres before crossing the road onto a walled lane opposite, which descends, crosses the railway line and meets a road. At the road junction go straight ahead towards factory yard keeping to the right to avoid lorries. Turn right at side of Langcliffe Mill and arrive at a mill pond.
Keep to the far edge of the mill pond until you reach the old mill workers cottages. Immediately before, go left through a gate and then right between the cottages. Then go left across the footbridge over the River Ribble and look for the weir and salmon ladder on the right.
After footbridge turn right to ‘Stainforth Foss’. Follow the river path for two kilometres through fields, along riverside path until you reach Stainforth Foss.
Leave waterfall, turn right onto road, cross the narrow packhorse bridge and climb towards main road. Just before, walk through the gate on your right and follow this path round, under the road bridge and back into the car park.

Route Options

What to look for

1. Several pubs in the area are called after the Craven Heifer. This was a real cow bred on the Duke of Devonshire’s estate at Bolton Abbey. She grew so big (312 stone, 11 feet long, 7 feet tall) that she was shown all over the country. A special doorway needed to be made to get her in and out of the cow shed!

3. The Craven Lime Works consist of three different types of lime kiln. The Hoffmann kiln was built in 1872 and is the best preserved of its kind in the UK. Its 22 entrances led into 22 separate chambers where blocks of limestone were stacked to roof height. Coal was added, the chambers were sealed, and the blocks burned over several days to produce lime. This was sent to the growing industrial towns in West Yorkshire by rail. It was hot and unpleasant work and closed in 1939.

6. The Langcliffe Community Gardens were created thanks to funds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, via YDMT. It has fruit trees, beehives and a beautiful circular bench. Wildflowers have been planted as part of the Meadow Links project which aims to restore a network of wildflower meadows – great for bees!

7. Langcliffe was once an important leather processing place. It was home to two textile mills, a paper mill, a tannery for making leather, a quarry, five inns, and two churches. It is now a sleepy village.

8. Langcliffe ‘High’ Mill was one of Yorkshire’s earliest and largest cotton spinning mills. Built in 1783-4 it contained an Arkwright cotton spinning machine because Richard Arkwright was a friend of the mill owners. The company began weaving cotton in the 1820s with the power looms housed in a single storey building known as Langcliffe Shed, which is now Watershed Mill. In the 1930s High Mill employed 250 people, with 100 working at Langcliffe Shed. The business closed in the mid 1950s. The millpond used to take water from the River Ribble to drive the water wheel of the cotton mill. It’s a third of a mile long and could generate 40 horsepower of energy.

10. Stainforth Foss is a good place to watch salmon leap in autumn as they return to lay their eggs. Atlantic salmon are ‘anadromous’ as they spend part of their life in the ocean but breed and lay their eggs in freshwater. Eggs are laid in autumn and hatch in spring.

info@peopleandthedales.org

Stainforth to Langcliffe

What to look for