Hike # 5 : Haighton Manor and Fulwood Park Wood

So far our hike’s or walks have all been positive experiences. This one was quite the opposite, and some of it was our own undoing.

This walk can be found here: https://www.ifootpath.com/display-ifootpath-walk?walkID=6270

It was a miserable looking day when we set out in the direction of Preston, Lancashire. The forecast was saying there was a slight chance of rain but the sky was giving us mixed signals. It was rather gloomy but didn’t really look like rain.

We decided to bring our dog along which was to prove a bad idea in retrospect and I really should have read the guide beforehand.

It all started very nicely at Haighton Manor (above) which looks like it could have been a stately home at one point in time but is now a pub and hotel; at least the car park was free.

After passing a private house and almost going in the wrong direction we were faced with the first of several obstacles, stiles that were decidedly dog-unfriendly.

It had rained the night before and we had to walk though the middle of a field with long grass soaking our feet. It was a bad start and put us in a decidedly gloomy mood for the rest of the walk.

This stile was one of the better ones, worn out, dropping apart and full of dense weeds. Lifting a 34Kg wriggling Golden Retriever over these is far from fun.

The next stile was in the middle of a narrow slippery bridge. Was had to haul ‘Shadow’ over and hope he didn’t slip off the bridge into the shallow chasm. It wouldn’t have hurt him but it would have been a struggle to pull him out.

After all this hassle should we have expected an A+ walk? A big pile of stones and a big red gas tank awaited us; I had to take a photograph didn’t I?

This old barn was getting a renovation. It seems to be quite a common practice in England, and they do make lovely spacious homes once complete.

Some of the directions for this trail were a little rougher than usual and I had to take care not to go the wrong way. It got very narrow and gloomy at times and we heard the sounds of a pack of dogs.

Fortunately it was just a kennels we were passing; Shadow is good with other dogs but this is not always reciprocated.

Heading up a country road we came across this sign. Was there a maniac behind the gate waiting to pounce? We continued without investigating.

After my first encounter with a wheat field on the last hike, we went past another. There was a farmer walking about training his dog, so we kept to the paths. Like the sign says, only part of it is public and they do get tetchy about trespassers.

The sky was looking rather black at this point and it started to rain as we walked past these country properties only to encounter another dreaded stile.

The gate was too low for Shadow to crawl under so I had to lumber him over again. Not pleasant when he’s wet and soggy.

Passing this field of very nosey bulls we could see the M6 motorway from the underpass. A big concrete mess!

Then it went all wrong as I couldn’t find where to go next. The path split into three and all of them appeared to be the wrong way. The correct way was through a gated locked property. Had someone blocked off the entrance of the footpath? It wouldn’t surprise me.

We had to veer off the target and use the GPS map to get back to the main road, through some woodland.

While it wasn’t unpleasant, I felt we missed a part of the walk we should have been on and had to compromise it with a long stretch of boring road walking. At least we didn’t have to visit those horrible stiles again!

A synopsis of the walk would be: Not bad, unfulfilled, dog unfriendly, and don’t expect too much scenery. We won’t be back for this one.

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