Last updated 13:16, Thursday, 16 October 2008

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Fungus growing on a tree alongside pretty St Sunday's Beck

MAP: OS Explorer map OL7.

PARKING: Layby on the A65, 0.9 miles south of the Westmorland General Hospital – GR SD527889.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: The Hay Close Lane road junction on the route is about a third-of-a-mile from Oxenholme railway station (telephone 0871 200 2233).

REFRESHMENTS: Station Inn, Oxenholme.

DISTANCE: 5.1 miles

TOTAL ASCENT: 830ft

TIME: 2.5-3 hours

GRADE: Easy/intermediate

OVERVIEW: Just to the south-east of Kendal, the delightful ridge path along the easily-attained top of The Helm (607ft) provides superb views of the Lake District fells as well as the Howgills, the Kent estuary and parts of the Yorkshire Dales. This walk also passes through pretty, rolling countryside to the east of the ridge, using quiet tracks and farm paths. The route isn’t always signposted and the paths on the ground are not clear after you’ve left the ridge, so you will need to pay close attention to the field boundaries on the map. Sections near St Sunday’s Beck can get very muddy.

THE WALK: From the layby, walk south along the A65 for a few yards and then turn left along a narrow lane. After crossing a cattle grid, turn right up a track into the trees (signpost reads: “Public Bridleway to Stang Green”). Almost immediately, bear left along a wide, grassy path heading up a bracken-covered slope. Continue in the same direction at a junction of paths near a bench. As you climb, you get a clear view of the Kent estuary to the SW. At the next junction of paths, swing left and the path then begins to climb the ridge alongside a wall.

Because of the isolation of this little hill, the views from the trig point (0.35 miles from the start) are totally out of proportion to the height gained. You can see for miles – with the mountains of the Lake District forming the horizon to the north and the west, the Howgills to the NE and some of the Yorkshire Dales’ highest peaks clearly visible to the SE.

Follow the ridge path alongside the wall until the wall starts swinging away to the right. Keep to the main path, which soon drops to a lane (1.15 miles from the start). Turn right, across the cattle grid, and then cross straight over at the road junction – along Hay Close Lane – towards Sedbergh.

When you reach the next set of buildings – about a third-of-a-mile beyond the junction – turn right along the first surfaced track you come to. The track swings right, between some farm buildings, and goes through a gate. It ends when you reach three gates next to each other. Go through the one on your left and then walk with the fence on your immediate right (ESE). Turn right through the next gate and drop down to the bottom left-hand corner of the field where you will find a gate with a waymarker on it. Go through this and pass in front of the farm buildings at Low Garth (2.2 miles from the start).

Turn right along the minor road and then left at the T-junction. Walk along the B6254 for 250 yards and then turn right up the Strickley Farm track. Almost immediately, leave the track by turning left at a waymarker. Go up the concrete steps here and over the wooden stile. Keeping the hedge on your left, follow the footpath as it makes its way through the pretty, rolling farmland – up and over the hill, going through a gate a few yards after cresting the rise. At the bottom of the next slope, go through the gate straight ahead and then cross the meadow to the footbridge (2.7 miles from the start).

Once over St Sunday’s Beck, aim for the metal gate over to your right, crossing some very soggy ground along the way. Once through this, go through the smaller gate up to your left and then bear left along the surfaced track. At the road junction opposite Blease Hall, turn right (signpost reads: “Public Footpath Bleasehall Wood”). Enter the concrete yard and swing round to the right of the buildings, passing through a metal gate. Go through another gate opposite to access a rough track between a hedge on your left and wall on your right.

When this track ends, go through the gate and keep to the field boundary on your right. Beyond the next gate, keep the field boundary – and a water-filled ditch – on your left. Continue in the same direction after the next gate. When the wall on your left ends, turn left to cross the tiny, well-concealed bridge and a stile (3.35 miles from the start). Go through the kissing-gate above you and then follow the narrow trail through the woods (SW).

Once over the next stile, walk with the wall and St Sunday’s Beck on your right for just under half-a-mile, crossing a couple of stiles on the way. Having ignored one footbridge near the white cottage at Stang, you cross the beck via a bridge near a ladder stile.

Walk NW across the meadow, passing just to the left of a solitary oak tree. You join a track close to a stone cottage (4.1 miles from the start). Turn left, crossing a cattle grid, and then, just after passing the driveway to Foxfield on your left, turn right through a large metal gate (signpost reads: “Public Bridleway Helm End”). Keep fairly close to the boundary on your right and, as the field tapers, head for the wooden gate at the far end. This gives you access to a narrow strip of land between the hedge on your left and a fence on your right.

You are soon channelled through a gap, beyond which you follow the hedge on your left. You climb gently and then drop to a gap between a wall on your left and a line of hedgerow. Go through the wooden gate opposite and then, instead of following the footpath up the right-hand side of the sloping enclosure, head straight up the middle of it (W). At the top, go through the gate and then bear right along the concrete lane (4.65 miles from the start). Cross straight over the narrow road and on to the public bridleway. Keep fairly close to the wall on your left as you cross the southern flank of The Helm and then drop down to the cattle grid you crossed at the start of the walk. Turn left and then right at the main road.

POINTS OF INTEREST: Blease Hall dates back to about 1450, when it was the home of a chantry priest. It was extended by Roger Bateman, an eminent Kendal wool trader, in the early 18th century.

As with most old houses, it has ghost stories associated with it. Strange shadows have been seen in one of the bedrooms and there have been sightings of a ghost. This is believed to be that of a girl who died of a broken heart after her lover was killed in the Crusades. She is said to have lived in a house built on the same site as Blease Hall.