Beacon Fell Country Park

Even though we had the car, we still did not find a great choice of places near at hand to visit. Six years ago when we had several days in this area we spent several of them out at the coast and then two years ago we visited Rufford Old Hall. That pretty much exhausts all that the National Trust has in this area.

However, Christine discovered Beacon Fell Country park, about an hour's drive to the north, part of the Forest of Boland. We would have liked to discover more of the Pendle area but that would have been quite a bit longer drive.

The country park was one of the first to be established in 1970 (back when local authorities were allowed real powers) and offers a range of short walks around the fell which rises to 266 m. It is mostly wooded but has occasional views to the distant hills. It is still very well maintained and seems to make an effort to ensure that there are things for young children to do.

We began indoors - in the small tea room, part of the information centre. (Truthfully, we began with the toilet block but let's gloss lover that minor inaccuracy!) Two very friendly staff provide a modest range of snacks but at this stage it was just coffee and biscuits but we did make sure that we could find lunch later on as we had not brought anything with us.

We began our exploration by following the Red route which took us from the car park, around the Fell and up to the summit.

After the short first open section, most of the trail was in the trees. Quite soon we came to the first of the statue trail - The Walking Snake.

We then continued through the trees.

With an occasional gap to take in the distant views.

Although most of the spring flowers have now turned to seed, there were plenty of impressive foxgloves just coming to their best.

After about 40 minutes (the whole trail was supposed to take us that length of time but we did stop to admire views and other points of interest along the way) the summit came into view with the distinctive Trig Point on the top. Although these are now redundant with modern surveying technology, they serve as markers and an important reminder of the effort that was once employed to create the detailed maps of the country.

Although there were some pointers of locations engraved on the top of the trig point, we have to admit that we did not do the best of jobs at identification of places in the distance!

It was a shorter distance back down hill - along the way we passed another sculpture. On our small guide leaflet this was described as The Bat but we knew better that it was The Owl. (Later we saw on an information board that this discrepancy has been corrected but no doubt they did not re-print the leaflets just for this!)

And lastly, before lunch, this intriguing head stands just above the tea room.

We ordered two of their sausage and bacon rolls - when they arrived they had the largest quantity of filling we have had in a long time!

We took our time - as the food is prepared to order there was already time for a read - but eventually we stirred ourselves for a second walk. This time we took the Blue Trail which took us around the perimeter of the country park so there was a little less up and down.

Just after setting off we came to an area of the woodland which has recently been cleared. A notice at the information centre explained need to manage to woodland but all the proceeds from the ale of timber go back into improvements in the park as a whole. Were it not for the trees on the skyline, this view looks as if it was a location for a post-apocalypse sci fi movie.

Yet another sculpture, this time the Lizard Love Seat. The scales of the lizard were formed from a large number of small coins pressed into the surface.

Christine spotted this orchid.

Half war around the trail we reached The Tarn, one of several small ponds around the park. This lone is supposed to be home especially to dragonflies but it was either too early in the season or they did not like the weather conditions. We did find a picnic bench and sat in largely sunshine for a while, again time to read (or nap!)

Time passed quickly but we finally made our way back to the start and took to the car for our return journey. By the time we arrived back at the canal the sunshine was really very warm and most of the clouds had disappeared. The strong breeze we had found on the more exposed parts lof the Fell had also died away.