Start: The Spread Eagle pub, Sawley (BB7 4NH) Grid ref. SD 774 465
(S/E) From the front door of the Spread Eagle pub, bear left along the riverside road to Sawley Bridge. Cross the river and take the footpath through a gate on the right.
Follow the obvious path along the field boundary to a metal kissing gate then continue in similar fashion. Sawley Hall, prominent on the opposite side of the river, belies its traditional appearance, having been built in the 2010s.
(1) Cross a side-stream, then cross the next field diagonally until you reach the main river in the far corner. Go through another kissing gate and follow the bank upstream for a short distance, before leaving the river and crossing the field on your left to a kissing gate.
Cross the next field to another kissing gate by an old hawthorn.
Cross a track and bear half-right to a narrow footbridge over Mear Gill. Bear left along the top of the far bank, following fences to left then right as far as a kissing gate. Continue along a field edge parallel to the stream, then bear right to a track.
(2) Turn right along the track to a farm gate, then descend to another stream, Tosside Beck. A long footbridge crosses the beck next to the ford.
Rejoin the track and follow it up the valley side alongside a wood full of rhododendrons. Beyond a kissing gate, when you reach a tarmac drive by a cattle grid, turn left and climb to the brow of the hill, where you pass a cross base in the field on your right.
Continue along the drive to the gate leading out to Bolton village.
(3) Turn left past the church and pass between the Coach and Horses and the war memorial, old cross and village stocks on the green. At the end of the village, cross Skirden Bridge and turn left into a metalled farm drive to the right of a sports pitch.
When the driveway bends left towards Bolton Mill, take the path over a stile straight ahead. Ignoring a path to the right, climb the hill ahead, passing to the right of another ancient cross base.
At the end of the field, go through a wooden kissing gate in a hedge, then bear slightly left across the next field. Cross a stile in the corner and follow the field edge above the wooded bank of Tosside Beck, then cross a field to a kissing gate into a track (at which point you meet the outward route).
(4) This time, turn right, and follow the track down to a footbridge next to a ford. Rejoin the track and follow it up the valley side to a road.
Turn left and follow the road for half a mile, passing Bow Laithe Farm on the left about halfway.
(5) Turn right up a metalled farm track, with a public bridleway fingerpost and signs for Hague Farm and Rodhill Gate Farm. At a junction before a cattle grid, turn left and walk up to Coldor House. Beyond the house, turn left onto a footpath that runs alongside the property to a footbridge.
(6) Bear right (uphill) to the top of the field, then turn left along the fence towards Lawson House Farm. In the corner, go through a farm gate on the right and follow the signposted footpath along the left-hand field edge, diverting to the right of and above the farm.
Go through another farm gate, and turn left, back down to the farm. Go through a gate to a barn, then turn right through another. Follow a track along the top of the field, passing through another gate.
(7) At the end of the next field, a wooden kissing gate leads into woodland. On meeting another path, turn left to a gate and descend between buildings (the house on the right is the former Friends’ Meeting House). Follow the drive out to Sawley road. Turn left, and then right over Sawley Bridge. Follow the road round to the left and back to the Spread Eagle. (S/E)
