Yarrow Valley Country Park – 08/07/26 – Leader Stephen D

21 walkers booked on for my walk today. Unfortunately, due to an accident on the M65, 9 people contacted me to say they wouldn’t make it in time for the start of the walk and so cancelled. I decided to hang on for the rest that did say they were still coming and so the walk was nearly an hour later setting off.

It was a warm, dry and sunny day at Yarrow Valley Country Park (also known as Birkacre) near Chorley. This walk was intended to be a new variation of a walk I led 6 or 7 years ago but I found that the ‘new’ paths were severely overgrown so I had to revert back to the original for the most part! We left the car park via the northern entrance, following a path through woods and beside the river Yarrow to the main road which we crossed and took a cobbled path slightly uphill towards Sharrocks. Heading south we encountered a very overgrown path, only previously walked when I did the recce – me thinks, to emerge into a housing estate and made our way to cross over the nearby railway line.

Last time I was here a few years ago you could see the large Enterprise Mill in the distance as we walked towards it but this time the view is obscured by a new housing estate. Moving past those we took a path through farmland to reach Park Road in a residential area of Coppull passing The Parish Church of St John the Divine and arrived at the main road opposite Coppull Library. Heading into Springfield Road we walked down this street to the end where we entered the grounds of Coppull United F.C. (this bit was a new addition to my route as there was a footpath closure elsewhere). Passing straight through we followed a path between crops and turned left in the middle of it to cross back over the railway line once again in the distance to reach an area of Coppull known as Chapel Hillock, and we decided to have an early lunch here (as we had missed our elevenses!) under some shady trees in the graveyard of the nearby parish church. The path later took us out into open fields and farmland, some of it through tall grass. Coming onto a lane at Highfield Farm some rather excitable dogs greeted us as we crossed their land to reach another lane. It was easier to walk down this lane rather than walk through overgrown fields, as some of us had already acquired a few nettle stings and scratches to our legs. We turned left into a stretch of woodland to reach Wigan Lane (a busy main road).

Crossing over, we entered Sandy Lane and within the grounds of Chorley Sand Company, a large quarry used for the extraction of sand and gravel. The quarry was largely screened off by trees but it was a relief to reach the other end and leave the noise behind. We were now in a residential area in Adlington and walked down Park Road to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and White Bear Marina where many narrowboats are moored and stored. We paused here for a drinks stop. There followed an easy stretch of walking along the canal towpath passing brightly coloured boats, some in good condition and some very dilapidated! After about a mile we left the canal turning left onto Rawlinson Lane and shortly afterwards turning right into a tree lined lane which we followed back to Wigan Lane and crossed it to enter the grounds of Yarrow Valley Country Park.

We followed a path through woodland, over a dismantled railway, along the edge of a field and through more woodland, over a couple of bridges over the River Yarrow which we followed pausing at the weir and fish ladder and took an easy path back passing the big lake back to the cars. We all went to the café when we got back. Many thanks to all those who attended.

Distance – 9.1 miles

Write up by Stephen – thanks to Mark for the pics and to David C for his excellent back marking.

‘If you wish to see a static view of the pics all in one go, then click here.’

Continuously running slideshow below – you can see it full screen by clicking in top left of picture