Getting outdoors
The countryside around Casterton offers many opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. There are footpaths and quiet lanes to explore on foot, bike or horseback and under our local fells are some of the most extensive cave passages in the UK, including the longest system in Britain, the Three Counties.
Casterton is ideally situated to explore the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. The Yorkshire Dales National Park and Lake District National Park websites offer ideas of where to go.
Caving
Casterton Fell overlies the western part of the Three Counties cave system, the longest in Britain. The local caving club is the Red Rose Cave & Pothole Club which was formed in 1946. Since then it has become one of the country’s leading caving clubs with a growing membership of nearly two hundred living all over Britain, as well as a number of overseas members.
Most of the activities are based around Bull Pot Farm located high on Casterton Fell, which acts as the Club’s headquarters and members are present most weekends. The club has installed a weather station at Bull Pot Farm which uploads information to the Met Office. The farm is available for booking by visiting groups or clubs.
Membership is open to anyone over sixteen provided they are proposed and seconded by club members. Prospective members are always welcome at the club’s headquarters in Bull Pot Farm. For further information on membership see the ‘How to Join’ link in the club website or contact the secretary.
More detail on the club website:
Cycling
Casterton makes an excellent base for road cycling, with a wide variety of scenery and terrain within easy reach.
The western side of the Yorkshire Dales is readily accessible from Casterton and the valleys of Barbondale, Dentdale, Garsdale, Kingsdale, Chapel-le-dale and Ribblesdale offer some of the best cycling in the North West, through beautiful scenery on relatively quiet roads; A-roads can nearly always be avoided and many routes will be on UCRs, some of them single track.
Crossing the Lune into Lancashire opens up an amazing range of different opportunities, from Arnside and Silverdale AONB, to the coastal towns of Arnside and Grange, and the delights of the southern end of the Lake District. The valleys of Lythe and Winster are among the most beautiful, and their unspoilt quiet will amaze first time visitors.
Those looking for a slightly longer ride could head for Sedbergh, and then traverse around the Howgills (on west side via the Lune Gorge, or on the east by traversing Mallerstang) to access the great opportunities for quiet riding north of the A685. This includes Great Asby Scar and the delights of Orton and the Westmorland Dales which were incorporated into the National Park in 2016.
The nearest bike shop is “Escape Bike Shop” between Cowan Bridge and Ingleton, and there are others in Settle and Kendal.
The Cycle the Dales website is a good starting point to find both road cycling and mountain bike routes.
Walking
There is a great deal of excellent walking within a few miles of Casterton, in the vicinity of the nearby settlements of Barbon, Hutton Roof and Kirkby Lonsdale. There is even more within very easy reach of the village in the nearby Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
Purchase and download walking guides to the wider Kirkby Lonsdale area by Joan Martin, who lives in Casterton and view Joan’s lovely photographs of Casterton and the surrounding countryside.
A couple of good places to find walks to try in the Dales and the Lakes are:
The walking guide displayed below will lead you up from Casterton to Bullpot, and is provided free of charge with the kind permission of Joan Martin (photonorth.co.uk) – click on the thumbnail image to open a PDF version of the guide
