Yorkshire Walks

Grizedale Forest Park

Map based on Ordnance Survey mapping by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. © Crown Copyright.

Length of Walk: 5 miles
Start/Finish: pay-and-display car park at Grizedale Visitor Centre, 2 miles south of Hawkshead
Terrain: Generally easy gradients, with some rough tracks

Grizedale Forest Park is managed by Forest Enterprise, part of the Forestry Commission. The charcoal burners' hearths, once so busy, have long since gone cold and the bloomeries fallen silent, but the forest still provides for the needs of industry. Every day five lorries leave laden with timber. It has an interesting Visitor Centre and many miles of paths and tracks which include ten waymarked trails. This walk makes use of part of the red banded trail and uses two old rights of way that existed before the forest was developed.

From the Visitor Centre follow the signpost arm with the red footprint. This directs you past picnic tables on the right. Just before the adventure playground, turn left to pass through a green painted door in a high wall. Turn right and follow the trail marker posts banded with red. Walk the metalled lane. Pass Home Farm and follow the curving way. Take the waymarked track on the left, signposted Coniston Water. Climb the rough path over exposed rock. At the forest road, walk right. Look for the narrow track leading off uphill on the left, with a red banded post at the start. This is the way the walk continues.
As you pass an area where the trees have been felled pause to look at the contours of the forest floor. This is what the fellside looked like before the trees were planted, difficult to visualise when in the depths of a thriving plantation. Pause again by two old gate stoops to look down on the pleasing pastures of the dale. Beyond, the track levels and the way is a delight to walk. Cross a small stream and enjoy the lush ferns and grasses that clothe its banks. Walk on. The red route now turns left, but this walk continues ahead to a T-junction of wide forest roads. Note this point for your return. Turn right and in a few steps, where the track divides, take the left branch. Stride on with, ahead, the first of many magnificent views of the Old Man of Coniston and of Wetherlam. After a gentle descent, take a clear track on the left.

On reaching a remnant of drystone wall and an iron fence the path divides again. Here take the left branch, keeping left of the 'Do not start a fire' sign. Pause often on this rough path to enjoy the pleasing views ahead. Emerge from the mixed woodland by a gate and continue descending through rolling pastures, with glimpses of Coniston Water to your left. Cross Black Beck on a tractor bridge and follow the track as it swings right to pass through a gate. Go on down and down and at the next signpost follow the track round left to a gate. Beyond, walk on to join the road.

Turn left and go carefully, for 150 yards to take the signposted bridleway on the left. Climb the delightful track to re-cross Black Beck, now nearer its destination in the lake, by another tractor bridge. Continue through woodland, looking for evidence of coppicing. Trees which have six or seven trunks coming straight out of the soil, instead of the usual one, have been coppiced in years gone by. The poles were harvested every 18 to 23 years and used for charcoal to smelt iron ore.

Pass through a gate and stride the good track through woodland. Then the trees are left behind and you carry on beside a small barn. Sit on a nearby boulder and enjoy Coniston Water below, where you might see the Gondola steaming away on its tour of the lake. Go on to cross a small stream and pass through a gate. Press on along the good track, with a conifer plantation to your left. Pass through the next gate to come to a raised area overlooking an old farmhouse, known as Lawson Park, the experimental station in the book 'Plague Dogs' by Richard Adams. Here turn left into more dense conifers, passing between two gate-posts. (Ignore the sharp left turn, which ends abruptly.) The way now climbs steadily and becomes wider. It continues through even denser conifers, where the temperature drops rapidly. Eventually the path levels and joins a forest road, where you turn left.

Stride on to the T-junction noted on your outward way. Turn right. Fifty yards on take the red banded trail that goes off right - the one you abandoned on your outward route. Stride the glorious forest ride, which is well way marked and has more spectacular views. Watch out for the tall deer-gate, way marked on both sides, through which you pass. The path beyond continues to the top of Carron Crag, the highest point in the Forest Park (1,025 feet). Scramble to the top for breath-taking views of the Lakeland Fells, the Howgills and the waters of Morecambe Bay.

Descend from the crag and follow the marker posts to another deer gate. Beyond, turn right and, after a few yards, at a cross of tracks, bear sharp left. Descend the lovely way to a forest road, Cross and descend the rough track taken at the outset of your walk. At the road bear right and walk past the Home Farm. Look for the green door in the wall on the left to return to the Visitor Centre.

From Walks Around Coniston & Hawkshead by Mary Welsh

The information given in this walk has been provided in good faith and is intended only as a general guide. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that details were correct at the time of publication, the author and Country Publications Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for inaccuracies. It is the responsibility of individuals undertaking outdoor activities to approach the activity with caution and, especially if inexperienced, to do so under appropriate supervision. The activity described in this walk is strenuous and individuals should ensure that they are suitably fit before embarking upon it. They should carry the appropriate equipment and maps, be properly clothed and have adequate footwear. They should also take note of weather conditions and forecasts, and leave notice of their intended route and estimated time of return.