Slaidburn, Easington and the Forest of Bowland

At the start of the walk, there is an inviting grassy bank on the side of the River Hodder opposite the car park. In the 19th century, hundreds of rabbit skins were pegged out here and used to make beaver-style hats.

The names of the fells near Slaidburn are a reminder of the past. Salter Fell was on the route of a packhorse trail used to bring salt to the outlying farms for preserving meat. Rising from Slaidburn itself is Tenter Hill. Here, locally made rolls of woollen cloth were hung from tenterhooks for a softening treatment with potash, which was made by burning bracken. Near Tenter Hill is the rolling farmland and woodland of the area known as Woodhouse. In the 14th century, the Abbot of Kirkstall Abbey, near Leeds, owned a great deal of the land of Bowland, and Woodhouse was then used as a stud for the Abbot's horses.

In late summer, the moorland view is coloured in purple, with cross-leaved heath and orange bracken. As well as moorland birds - lapwing, curlew and golden plover - there are thousands of black-headed gulls. They breed on an island in Stocks Reservoir, just out of sight beyond Woodhouse. The island is also home to nesting geese, as well as red-breasted merganser and wintering goosander.

Field paths lead to Easington, an old settlement mentioned in the Domesday Book. The site of the old manor house has been excavated, revealing walls over four feet (1.2 metres) thick. The path from Easington returns you to a tranquil section of the River Hodder. These quiet reaches are ideal for spotting birds such as sand martins, sandpipers, dippers, heron, oystercatchers and redshank.

A little bridge crosses the River Hodder and bears right, past Dunnow Hall. The hall was built in the 1830's for the Wilkinson's, but the family never lived there. Tragically, while the first owner and his wife were honeymooning in Switzerland, the coach in which they were travelling slipped over the cliff edge of an Alpine track. Mr Wilkinson survived but his bride was killed.

A quiet lane leads back towards Slaidburn. The first significant building you reach is St Andrew's Church, whose history can be traced over eight centuries. Near the church, traces of a Bronze Age settlement have been discovered and next to it is the old Grammar School, founded in 1717. It is of an unusual English architectural style - the Carolean.

At the far end of the lane is the Youth Hostel, previously the Bull Inn. Opposite the hostel is the Hark to Bounty Inn. The story goes that it changed its name from the Dog Inn in 1875 after a hunt by the Reverend Henry Wigglesworth picked out the sound of his hound. Bounty, from all the other baying outside the inn. The upstairs of the Hark to Bounty contains all the original furnishings from the time when it was the local courthouse.