Keep safe!

Keep safe!
You are responsible for your own safety and that of your dog. The walks listed in this blog are not detailed guides. Plan your route! Click the landrover image for safety advice from Bowland Pennine MRT.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Worden Park, Shaw Brook and Altcar Lane

Regular visitors to the blog will know that Worden Park is one of our favourite places to walk the dog. Sometimes though it's good to have a bit more of a purposeful walk rather than an aimless wander across the fields and through the woods.

For some reason (possibly to clear my head of yesterday's crushing 4-0 defeat of Exeter City at Huddersfield) today was one of those days so, whilst we set off to Worden, we'd planned an extension to our normal circuit of the park. We set off from the main car park as normal, with the dog chasing his ball endlessly (as is also normal) and headed towards the pond before following Shaw Brook Road along the edge of the football pitches to the white gate at the far side of the park. We continued along Shaw Brook Road, which is little used by traffic, until reaching Leyland Lane. This part of the route was a little disappointing. Recent cutting of the hedges along the road revealed numerous fly tipping sites, so pointless!

The short walk along Leyland Lane gave chance to remind the dog of what "heel" means before we turned down Altcar Lane. Passing open farmland where crazing cattle stared disinterestedly as we passed, we eventually reached Altcar Farm where our path took us left over a stile, before skirting the edge of the farm, through a gate and out in to open farmland. Be warned that we lost our way slightly here as the footpath sign has been removed from the gate. Fortunately for us the helpful and friendly farmer, who had watched us searching up and down for some kind of sign, was happy to show us the way and informed us that whilst the Council had replaced the gate, they'd not yet replaced the sign.

The path led us past hundreds of grazing sheep who, unlike the cattle, were very aware of our presence, before we reached another stile and small bridge over Shaw Brook near Runshaw Hall Lane. The bridge took us back in to the park and we turned left along the riverside path, with the dog off lead once more, before reaching the formal gardens of Worden Hall.

Finally, we headed back towards the car, with dog increasingly aware of the likelihood of a shower in the park's wonderful dog wash. I've never understood how a dog that loves mud and water so much hates the thought of a cold shower!

Despite the rain this morning we had a lovely walk. A well recommended extension to a trip to Worden and great for clearing your head. Huddersfield Town? Who are they?

Doggy rating 7/10

Click here for google map

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh ... this sounds like a most enjoyable walk. My Sadie and I would have loved it. Is there truly a dog shower at the end or did I misunderstand. This is something that Sadie would probably love and really really need.

Dave said...

Yes, there really is a dog shower. It's on the right at the far end of the car park. Only cold water unfortunately but it does the job!

Dave said...

love the photos on your blog. The snow looks wonderful, as does Sadie!