This walk joins together the three mill villages of Abbey Village, Withnell and Brinscall perched at the western end of the West Pennine Moors. They are all linked by a section of the disused Feniscowles-Chorley railway line which hereabouts forms a nature reserve and is open to walkers.

The villages are also linked by the man madeVictorian waterway known as the Goit, the channel that connected Anglezarke Reservoir near White Coppice with the higher reservoirs constructed in Roddlesworth Woods.

There are good views of the moors on this walk over to Great Hill and Darwen Tower. Also, when you pass near Withnell church, have a look at the

roadside cross commemorating local lad Private James Miller, who earned the VC for delivering messages between trenches in the Battle of the Somme, 1916.

1. From the Hare & Hounds pub walk along the main street of the village (in the direction of Blackburn) to the point where the houses end. Turn left through the open gateway of a goods yard with the old Withnell Station house on the right. Go through a gate straight ahead and join the route of the old railway line.

2. The railway line path is followed straight ahead for the next mile. It passes under two bridges and eventually reaches a fishing pond on the right. Soon after passing the pond you reach a path junction with a play area on the left and a wooden walkway on the right. Continue straight ahead here and you come out on the main road through Brinscall village.

3. Turn left and cross over the street to the road junction at the gated entrance to a playground. Go through these gates and follow the path through the playground which becomes a path along the Goit with Brinscall lodge on the right. Walk alongside the Goit as far as the first gate reached.

Go through the gate and turn right to reach an access road. Cross this straight ahead and go under the old railway bridge, following a stony path uphill to reach the tarmac driveway leading to Brinscall Hall.

4. Turn right along the tree-lined drive which leads back to Brinscall village. Turn left at the road junction and follow the pavement uphill to the top end of the village. You reach a lane

crossroads with a primary school on the left and a cricket field on the right. Turn right at the crossroads along Sandy Lane. This gives a good view north to Bowland and the Lake District on a fine day.

Follow this lane to its end and at the T-junction turn right then left to reach a residential road.

5. Turn left and almost immediately join the farm access track on the left, signed as a footpath. Follow this straight ahead past farm buildings, all the way back to where it meets a road.

Withnell Church is on the left on the opposite side of the road and if you turn left for a few metres you can see the roadside memorial to local VC hero James Miller. To continue the walk cross the road and pick up the signed footpath directly opposite that begins at a gate.

6. The hedged path leads downhill between gardens and a field. Cross a stile and the path runs diagonally right across the corner of a field to reach a track at the lower end of the field.

Continue right and the track swings left then right to cross a bridge over the old railway line walked along earlier. Immediately after crossing the bridge you can turn sharp left along a hedged path that runs parallel to the railway and brings you out on the main street in Abbey Village.