Cononley Lead Mine

I really like this walk but I’d stopped doing it as you had to walk through the farm yard of Manor House Farm and it always had 4 Rottweilers on chains and one loose wondering around.  The farmer said they were okay but it put me off going there.  Anyway I’d got my OS map out and found a path which meant I could miss this bit of the walk out without too much of a detour.

I parked up in the tiny car park in Cononley and set off up towards Town Head Farm. 

  The track then turned up a green way which was pretty boggy after all the rain last week.  As I got to Great and Little Gib here was the change from the normal walk – instead of taking the stile on the left I carried along the track to take a stile into a field straight in front of me – from here the path went across the fields to eventually arrive at a corner stile back on to the Lothersdale road. 

  Walking across the field I got a good view of the Cononley Lead Mine pump house.  Another day I’d like to walk up there and have a look around – it’s restored/preserved by Earby mining society and was in use from 1842 to 1882.  I believe cavers sometimes go down the shafts and explore the veins down there.

After walking back down the road the Manor House farm came into view and I took a right down a track by a farm.  Looking across at Earl Crag and Cowling Pinnacle.  At the bottom I dropped onto an access road.  It was lovely walking along there today – at the end I turned off by Buckett Farm then through a gate and up through a field – on the other side of the field wall was a herd of very noisy cows which followed me up the hill on their side of the wall.  

Thank goodness I didn’t have to go in that field.  Going through gates I came back out on to the road just above Glusburn – soon taking a path on my left – going through a gate and past an old empty reservoir.

The path was clear from here slating back down the hillside, it was pretty muddy in parts but easy enough walking.  Eventually I turned down a track onto the main road.  However I should have turned down sooner as the directions said turn left to a ladder stile and I had to turn right.  The ladder stile took me across the railway line to a path alongside the river Aire and onto the road back into the village – a lovely walk.  

Had felt quite warm even though its November – about 5 ½ miles.  I’ll do this again now I’ve found an alternative to the Farm.