Kirkby Lonsdale and the River Lune

It's something of a revelation, to escape the weekend motorcycle congregation on Devil's Bridge and take this circular walk over rolling hills, through farmland and woods, to the worthy village of Whittington, then to return along the banks of the lovely Lune. You pass close to Sellet Mill – its huge waterwheel, incorporated within the building, was reputedly once the second largest in the country. Corn was ground at the mill until its closure in the 1940s.

Sellet is a word you'll come across often on this walk and is apparently an old local word for drumlin (a small rounded hill formed by glacial deposits). Your next Sellet is Sellet Bank, which appears to be a large drumlin. The walk takes you around its base and eventually to Sellet Hall. Built as a farm in 1570 by the Baines family, the hall was possibly used at one time as a hospital, as it is situated at the end of Hosticle Lane – hosticle is an old dialect word for hospital. You return to Kirkby Lonsdale along the banks of the River Lune, following part of the Lune Valley Ramble.

Devil's Bridge

A simple spring in a field at Newbiggin-on-Lune is the source of the beautiful River Lune, which eventually flows into Morecambe Bay and the Irish Sea to the north of Cockersand Abbey. The river has inspired many artists, most famously J M W Turner, who visited Kirkby Lonsdale in 1818 and subsequently included the river in two of his paintings. The riverbed is rocky under Devil's Bridge, so called because it was supposedly provided by the Devil to enable a poor widow to reach her cow on the other side of the river. In return for this, the Devil was to acquire the soul of the first being to cross the bridge. The widow's only other possession was a small dog. According to a popular poem from the 1820s, she threw a bun across the bridge and the poor hound scampered after it, thus thwarting the Devil and saving her own soul. This graceful, three arched monument probably dates from the 14th century and no longer has to support the busy A65, which has had its own river crossing a short way downstream since the 1930s.

From the west bank of the river, a few paces downstream from Devil's Bridge, go diagonally up across a park with picnic tables to a kissing gate near paired conifers. Cross the A65, go through a narrow meadow and between houses and cross the B6254. As you enter another meadow, go uphill, keeping the walled wooded area on your left. Yellow markers help you find the route. Keep on over the brow of the hill and straight ahead through two kissing gates to a metal gate near houses. Bear left to a signpost.

Cross a farm track to the white-painted Woodend Cottage. Turn right here and follow the track to the road. At the road turn left and follow it down. At a junction on the right, the road becomes named as Biggins Lane.

Just before Sellet Hall comes into view on the left, a road branches out to the right. Stay straight ahead towards Whittington village along the road now called Hosticle Lane. The lane is sunken in places and carries very little traffic. The descent steepens as you approach the outskirts of Whittington.

Go left at the T-junction for a few paces, then cross the road and turn right over a pebbled mosaic at the entrance to the Church of St Michael the Archangel. Keep the square bell tower on your left before descending stone steps to go through a narrow stile and the modern graveyard. Follow the hedge to a gate in the left corner and keep straight on to reach a stone stile into a walled path that leads onto Main Street. Turn right and walk through the village past the village hall.

  At a sharp right bend on the edge of the village, turn left along a gritty track, passing a farm and tennis courts. Follow the lane as it winds between fields, eventually crossing a cattle grid and running out at an anglers' hut beside the Lune. Follow the riverbank upstream on the route of the Lune Valley Ramble. There's a short overgrown section but it soon becomes an easy walk through fields, always close to the river. The route is obvious back to the A65 bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale. Go through a gate and up steps to the left of the parapet. Cross the road and drop down the other side to cross the park at the start of the walk.