We followed the River Brock to Walmsley Bridge where we had a small section of road before taking the footpath to Throstle Nest with its beautiful landscaped garden. Another short section of road followed before we returned to the riverside path. We had an early lunch stop at the picnic site car park at Brock Mill before leaving the shelter of the trees and crossing Higher Brock Bridge and the fields to Lower and Middle Lickhurst.  We headed across the fields to pick up the path up  onto Beacon Fell. At the trig point we admired the views across to Parlick and Fairsnape with the sun gleaming on the snow on the higher ground.  We circled round Beacon Fell for those who hadn't been before and after a brief stop at the Information Centre and admiring the views out to the coast we descended through the trees to lower ground.

 

After some mis- navigation we came to Crombleholme Fold and onto Fellside. When we came to the old Cross Keys Pub site we found a big change. A re-development project was well in hand with a number of properties nearly completed.  We crossed the footbridge at Ryeheads continuing on to Higher Barker and onto the road back to the cars. We all agreed the weather had been very kind to us improving as the day went on.