View over Dyneley, Cliviger
A good way to take in the true splendour of the Gorge is to make a circuit of it, and luckily for us, there are bike-legal rights of way all around.
Starting from the village of Mereclough, about 3 miles due East of Burnley town centre the first part of the ride doesn’t seem too promising – it mainly consists of a 2 and a bit mile A-road tarmac slog along the A671 which leads over the hill to Bacup. However, just before the junction with the B6238 on Deerplay Moor is an access point for the Pennine Bridleway.
This eventually leads to a road crossing point, but rather than get that far, hang a left before the crossing. An indistinct bridleway (actually still marked as a public footpath on the second series OS Landrangers, but correctly marked on the newer Explorers) hugs the wall over close-cropped grass. Passing several makeshift sheep pens, you will eventually arrive at a gate through which the bridleway passes and leads out of the intake onto the open moorland.
The trail becomes more distinct here, making a slightly serpentine crossing of the top of Black Clough, before striking steeply upwards towards the trigonometric point at Thieveley Pike.
It is worth making a stop here as it is one of the highest points in East Lancashire, just shy of 449 metres (1500 feet) elevation, and on a clear day affords magnificent 360° panoramic views. The three peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent, and Longridge Fell are often also visible in the far distance.
Continue Eastwards, keeping the milestone showing 10 miles to Rochdale on your left hand side. The trail drops gently down, again on close-cropped grass to a gate. It’s a little less distinct here, so keep the wall on your right-hand side and follow it until the trail becomes apparent again.
It soon becomes a double-wide farm track and eventually brings you out at Heald Farm. Here, you’re at the top of Stacksteads – unfortunately it’s pikey central round here and the farm looks more and more like an abandoned scrap yard every time I ride through the yard. I honestly don’t know how some people can live in these conditions.
Once through the farm yard, turn immediately left. This is where the fun begins! A wide, fast former mine access road starts to lead down towards the Cliviger Gorge. The surface gradually deteriorates and the gradient steepens – a quick shimmy past the old pit head and its attendant detritus is quickly followed by a couple of tricky bends on the approach to Green’s Farm. Keep the farm on the right-hand side and the the track REALLY steepens here! As it gets closer to the road, the surface gets very rocky, rutted and loose – you need your wits about you because one moment’s inattention will have you over the bars.
The tricky bit is at the bottom. Or not. If you reach the big barn/shed type building, you’ve gone too far and you’re goignt o have to come back. The trail actually doubles back about half way between the last bend and that building and then emerges on the side of the A646 via a gate.
You need to cross the A646 – the entrance to Dean Farm is almost dead opposite the gate. However the main road is VERY busy at most times of day and the crossing point is pretty blind. TAKE ESPECIAL CARE WHEN CROSSING. Once you have though, cross the railway and turn left at the end of the bridge. A short pinch up into the farmyard follows, where you bear left through a gate – it’s actually signposted as a footpath, but it is bridleway so don’t worry.
The track climbs steadily from here. At the opening in the first wall, double-back to the right and keep climbing past a small pond and through another gate at the top. Eventually the track levels out onto a short terrace as it approaches the ruins of High Gate farm.
This is another good place to stop and take in the view. What you can see here is the main line of the Cliviger Fault. The hummocky nature of the land on which you are sitting is down to glacial erosion and deposition, whilst the sheer buttresses of Thieveley Scout opposite show where, millennia ago, the plate on which you are sitting pushed down under the plate at the opposite side of the valley and thrust it upwards, vertically. The Cliviger Gorge is renowned world wide for it’s unique geological formations, and photographs, maps and descriptions of the area form part of the research material available to students of geology at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
Suitably rested, continue through the gap in the hillside by High Gate and turn immediately left. You will eventually come to a gate across the track. DO NOT go through this one, but go left and through the next gate. Keeping the wall on your right, you can then follow the trail right along the edge of Cartridge Pasture, which continues to afford expanding views of the Cliviger Gorge on the left, and the bleak peat moors and Black Hamledon to the right.
Eventually, you will be able to go no further – the wall on your right takes an abrupt left turn by the substation for the Coal Clough wind farm, and plunges back into the valley. However, there is a gate in the wall here. Go through it and head for the corner of the substation. Eventually, you will be able to see the access road – join this and follow it to the road.
There’s more riding to be had from here, but we’ll save that for another day. For now, turn left onto the black-top, and head back down the Long Causeway and the start point at Mereclough.
Many Thanks to Toxophilus for this post.
This sounds like a great route. I tried to plot it on http://www.bikehike.co.uk for my GPS but couldn’t follow it very far – any chance of a GPX file or an upload of a map with the route highlighted please?