A CIRCUIT OF CLOUGHA

18/02/12

Clougha Pike standing proud above Lancaster is a walk I have done dozens of times over the last 5O years and on a bright sunny evening it cant be beaten.
Leave the car at Rigg Lane car park north of Quernmore and head north-east along a rutted track Towards Ottergear Bridge.
Soon after the bridge the track joins an estate road which climbs up the fell in a south-east direction passing numerous shooting butts and stone cairns.
The Shooters track winds its way uphill turning gradually to the east, over to the nort-east is the wind farm on Caton Moor whilst due east the three peaks of Ingleborough; Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent are prominent.

Most of this area on the north facing slopes belongs to the Duke of Westminster and is used for grouse shooting
The estate road now swings eastward before once again turning south to bisect the old access strip between Grit Fell and Ward's Stone. If there is no desire to go that far east simply cross the heather moor southward until you cut the footpath along the watershed and return to Clougha Pike.
The view from Clougha Pike is the best in Bowland across the Fylde Coast through Lancaster and Arnside towards Grange and the Lakeland Hills.
A well worn footpath descends from the summit shelter and trigpoint along Clougha Scar.
There are a few alternative routes to choose on approaching Windy Clough. Simply follow the drystone wall which involves a steep descent into and out of Windy Clough itself, one variation is to skirt the clough to the east and descend to pick our outgoing route. Today however we turned westward and descended Windy Clough through the trees to cross the Duck Boards east of Rigg Plantation.