Beacon Fell: the country park on the edge of Bowland

A short climb to a wide view, half an hour north of Preston, and the easiest introduction to Bowland there is.

Beacon Fell is a country park on a wooded hill north of Preston, on the southern edge of the Forest of Bowland. It is the nearest genuine upland to the city, it is about half an hour by road, and it is the place Prestonians go when they want a hill, not a park.

The summit carries a view that is the whole reason to come: west over the Fylde to the coast, north to the Bowland fells and in clear weather to the Lake District, and south back over the Ribble valley towards Preston.

The hill

The fell is planted with conifer on its flanks and open near the top, which gives the walk a distinct sequence: forest track, then thinning cover, then open summit. It is a short climb by upland standards and the paths are surfaced for most of the way.

The summit has a topograph identifying what you are looking at, which is unusually useful here because the view covers three quite different landscapes and the naming is not obvious from the ground.

What Bowland is

The Forest of Bowland is an upland area of gritstone fell, moorland and steep valleys north east of Preston, protected as a designated landscape. Forest here means a hunting forest instead of woodland, which is why most of it is open moor.

Beacon Fell sits at its southern tip and is the most accessible part of it. Going further in means narrow roads and long walks; Beacon Fell gives you the character of Bowland from a car park, which is not a criticism.

Walking it

The circular route around the fell is a couple of miles with a modest climb, and the summit can be reached in twenty minutes from the nearest parking. There are longer routes on the lower flanks through the forestry, and the whole site is small enough that navigation is not a concern.

It works in most weather, which is worth knowing in a landscape where the higher Bowland fells frequently do not. The forest cover on the flanks makes the lower routes usable when the top is in cloud.

Getting there from Preston

Beacon Fell is north of Preston by road, through Longridge or via the Garstang side, and it is a drive as opposed to a bus trip: public transport to the fell itself is not practical. Travel covers the wider picture.

It is the clearest case on this site of something worth doing from Preston that is not in Preston. The city's own outdoor provision is the parks and the Guild Wheel; for a hill you leave the city.

What else is out this way

Bowland Wild Boar Park is further into the valley system and is the usual pairing for a family day. The Trough of Bowland road, which crosses the fells towards Lancaster, starts from the same side of the district and is one of the better drives in the north west.

Closer to Preston, Turbary Woods and the Brockholes reserve on the Ribble are both shorter trips with a similar outdoor character. The parks and outdoors index sets out the whole range.

Practicalities

Parking charges, opening arrangements and facility details for Beacon Fell are set by the site's managers and change with the season. The fell itself is open country and the paths are permanent; the visitor provision around it is not.

Footwear matters more than at any park in the city. The surfaced paths are genuinely surfaced, but the ground either side of them is upland ground and behaves like it after rain.