So I come to the last of our summer hikes, this one happened on the 12th July 2018. It seems so long ago now. The weather doesn't look so nice but it was hot, believe me it was.. for England.
Here’s the iFootpath link for it:
https://www.ifootpath.com/display-ifootpath-walk?walkID=3202
Five or six miles is decent walk, and if it’s hot and muggy it can get uncomfortable if you don’t take some water with you. We did but in this case fly spray might have been better.
A 5.5 mile circular walk through the spectacular Ribble Valley in the Forest of Bowland. The walk starts and finishes on Avenue Road. The route takes in the riverside path alongside the Ribble plus the surrounding fields and tracks. There are beautiful views throughout as you take in this peaceful and tranquil setting which, some speculate, could have been Tolkien’s inspiration for the Shires in the Lord of the Rings novels.
Hurst Green is a sleepy village famous to us only for a lovely café that we used to regularly frequent. We don’t go so often now but it will eventually get into the 
After exiting the urban areas of the village, a well trodden path led the way into a densely wooded area. This would be really muddy if it was wet, but the summer was so dry there weren’t any problems such as this.
Crossing this bridge brought us into a more open area and a lazy walk on the side of the River Ribble.
There was no crossing the river at this point unless you wanted to do a balancing act on this green pipe that sits on the bridge. Some metal fencing had been placed in a half-hearted attempt to deter prospective circus performers.
These cows were in deep discussion about something or other, but largely ignored us. One however was making a poor attempt a guarding the way. They are really nosey creatures but back off when approached.
Red wild flowers were growing in abundance, I don’t know what they are called.
Somewhere at this point, a horsefly took a huge interest in 
Running down this enormous field (cover photo) seemed to get rid of the pesky insect. No fly spray when you need it!
So this is where Tolkien found his inspiration for Lord of the Rings? It really is a calming peaceful place if nothing else. This wierd looking tree does reminds me of Hobbits somehow.
I didn’t see the piggery but there’s one around here somewhere. It was very overgrown in this area and the business might well have gone 'belly up'.
This tree looked good for photographs and who else to pose but Mrs Big Grin herself. I could have taken photographs for hours and she would continue to sit there and take it.
Yes, we really are in Hobbit country, just look at the signs.
Some walking was tricky; these large bricks are not the best thing to track over. Fortunately only a short part of the road was like this.
At the end of this long lane is Stonyhurst Collage. It’s quite a prestigious place to send your kids too.
I couldn’t resist a little peek inside the ground as it was closed for summer.
There’s supposedly a lunatic asylum close by but I can’t seem to find any record of it. Many have been closed down now; this is a possible UrbEx location if I can find the damn thing.
The walk was almost finished, but we went through one more field that had lots of sheep hugging the trees. The sun wasn’t really strong that day and it was cloudy and yet they were all doing this collective tree hugging exercise.
My feet were hurting a little by the end of this one. It was longer than usual, though small fry for
This walk a nice jaunt through the Tolkien backwoods, but try as I might I saw no hobbits.
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