Woodhouse Gate Farm Cottage

Cycling

The cottage is situated on the Lancashire Cycleway. The cycleway comprises two circular routes which meet in the historic village of Whalley in the Ribble Valley and is around 260 miles long. The cottage is an ideal base for the keen cyclist wanting to explore the Cycleway or the leisure cyclist looking for quiet roads to explore in the vicinity of the cottage itself.

The Lancashire Cycleway follows minor roads, where possible and takes you through a host of different landscapes from the rugged Bowland Hills and West Pennine Moors to the rich pastures of the Fylde Plain and the outstanding coastal scenery at Silverdale.

Members of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and Friends of the Earth set up the Cycleway to provide a scenic tour of the county. There are links with the Cumbria Cycleway.

A guidebook to Lancashire Cycleway by Jon Sparks, an acclaimed photographer and writer based in Lancaster, is available from good bookshops and information offices or direct from the publishers Cicerone Press.

Another excellent area for cyclists looking for the challenge of rugged off road tracks is Gisburn Forest. The keen cyclist could cycle from the cottage to Cocklet Hill carpark which is the starting point for a 9 and a 17 km cycle route through the forest. There is detailed information about the routes available on site. For the less energetic it is possible to drive from the cottage to the car park before setting out on the cycle routes.

For more information about cycling in Lancashire an excellent source of information are the CycleWays and Bowland By Bike pages of the Lancashire County Council website.

Another good source of information about cycling in and around the area is the Forest of Bowland AONB Website.