After leaving the canal, the route to Kirkham was mostly very quiet country roads. The country lanes into Kirkham were very quiet, with just a few dog-walkers using them....

Mary Oz

The plotter of this route may not have known, but there is now a major road construction project of a link road crossing the route between Salwick and Cottam which currently obliterates any possibility of walking through....

Mary Oz

At Todderstaff Farm a narrow track next to the caravans led to a farm track where there was a slightly intimidating “Stop” sign. After crossing the railway another farm track became a field path parallel to the railway. This was fine, but after the traditional narrow bridge in the corner, the diagonal public footpath across the field had been obliterated by crops and I had to walk around the side towards the tennis courts. There was then a bit of rough land alongside the tennis courts to reach a rickety stile onto a good path around a warehouse to the football stadium....

Mary Oz

Some of the quiet country roads were also quite pleasant, but it was a long route to be entirely hard-surfaced....

Mary Oz

A friendly groundsman from the park told me that the park was not a public right of way, and that the actual footpath was frequently very deeply flooded....

Mary Oz

It’s paved the entire way, with a couple of stretches of narrower pavement along the side of the road....

Gismay

Lots of stiles make this route unsuitable for any wheeled transport but the path itself is fairly even and does not have very much in the way of steep assents or descents. The right of way near the windmill is through the owners garden, signposted and fairly obvious it is not quite as the map and goes between the windmill and the neighboring house not to the left of the windmill....

Nichola Rhodes

A lot of it goes across fields full of crops planted over the footpaths, and you are drawn to walk along tractor wheel tracks which take you the wrong way. It didn’t feel right to walk along the correct field inside the electric fence, but it WAS the correct route, and led to a footbridge into a sheep-grazed field with mercifully short grass! After another field I was once again misled by tractor wheel tracks....

Mary Oz

The route meets the Lancaster Canal at the Hand and Dagger pub which appears to be open, including for food, from 12 every day, except Mondays and Tuesdays. The canal is also in the path of the new M55 link road construction, but I don’t think that will cause disruption to this route now, as the bridge looks complete. This canalised river, Savick Brook, was opened in 2002 to connect the Lancaster Canal to the River Ribble and the rest of the canal network, for the first time in its history. The road route from here to Preston Station passes St Walburge’s Church with its incredible spire, and then several county council buildings....

Mary Oz

The road has quite a few cars using it, and also occasional buses, trucks and tractors....

Mary Oz

The designer of this route wouldn’t have known, but it also happens that there are major road works going on here which block this farm track....

Mary Oz

Apart from a few narrow sections, and traffic parking on pavements in Freckleton, it is wide enough to walk 2-a-breast. This route crosses a few major roads that are controlled by puffin crossings....

Stearsb

By retracing my steps to Huck lane I was able to complete the walk following a different route. The footpath continues to a track (Huck lane) and then to the footpath to Great Carr side farm....

Stearsb