Underbarrow

This is a 45 minute walk with plenty of opportunities for dabbling in water for children of all ages. 1½ miles.

Start at Underbarrow Church (Grid ref. 463926). (Take the Crosthwaite to Kendal road as far as the Underbarrow Black Labrador pub. Take the turning opposite the pub, signed to Crook, and keep right at the next junction. Turn right up a very minor road beside the church - unless there is a service at the church, there is room to park near the main church gates.)

[The present church was built in 1869 and is thought to be the fourth church on this site.].

Walk up this minor road past the church on your left and a cream-painted house on the right and look for a footpath sign to the left. Go through the gate, cross the field to a gateway and find a footbridge over the river. On the other side turn left and go over a stile into the road. Turn right up the road. Take the second turning on the left - a stony track signed as a footpath. Continue up this track and look for a stile on the left, just before the wood. The path follows the wall round the edge of the wood and then downhill.

[It brings you to a lovely sheltered spot where the footpath crosses a small tumbling beck, but please note that this provides a private water supply and do not pollute.]

After crossing the beck, continue beside the wall to a stile and cross the minor road. Take the signed footpath through the yard of The Broom, turning left through a gate beyond the house.

[There are some very large dogs here, which may bark a lot, but are not vicious.]

Cross the field to a wooden stile. Head straight across the next field to a stile where the wall on the left meets the hedge on the right. Continue straight on to another stile in the corner of the field, then bear left and follow the hedge to a kissing gate. To continue the walk you will turn sharp right here before the gate, but you can cut the walk short by turning left and going through the kissing gate. (To return to the church, go through the gate, then over a stile into the road, over the bridge and turn left.)

From the kissing gate turn right, heading south, aiming for a rocky knoll. Chapel Beck is on your left, but near the knoll you will find a narrow channel of water on your right with a mini waterfall which was once a mill race. Follow this to a stone footbridge, cross over and bear left. At the top of the rise bear left again to a gate which leads to the back of Greenridge Mill.

[There have been mills on this site since the 13th Century including corn mills - and filling mills, but when the corn mill burned down in the 19th Century it was rebuilt as a sawmill which was operated by the Chaplow family within living memory. The small building on the right was a blacksmithy, the upper rooms on the left a joiner's shop. The remains of various pieces of machinery are lying around and the pipe through which water was carried to the wheel can be easily seen.]

Continue to the road. Turn left, and keep left at the road junction.

[If there are not too many wagons in the yard you can see the waterwheel of the mill from the road, between the house and the outbuildings.]

This road will take you back to the church.