"Pause and rest awhile" the notice bids you at little Dalehead Church. This isolated spot, cloaked by dark conifers on the edge of Gisburn Forest, is a memorial to a village lost when the valley was drowned by Stocks Reservoir. Though Dalehead is but a faded memory and its parish divided between Slaidburn and Tosside, the tiny church of St James was built from the stones of the original church and this link with the past is always open.
LOCATION: Forest of Bowland
START: Slaidburn car park B6478, eight miles north of Clitheroe, toilets
Grid ref: SD714524 Postcode: BB7 3AE
DISTANCE: 6 miles
GRADE: Easy
TIME: 3 hours
MAP: Explorer/OL - Forest of Bowland Landranger 103
REFRESHMENTS: Slaidburn
EN ROUTE: River Hodder, Hammerton Hall
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News