
Bowland Country Park
Wild boar, deer and llamas in a Forest of Bowland valley, with animal feeding, a barrel train and river walks. Small, unslick and all the better for it.
Clitheroe & Ribble Valley, Lancashire

Lancashire's first sculpture trail has been growing here since 1993, threading through Brungerley Park and Cross Hill Quarry nature reserve on the banks of the Ribble. There are more than 20 permanent artworks to find, from a stainless steel sika deer to a tawny owl seat you can actually sit on, which is exactly the sort of bait that gets a reluctant walker round a whole park.
The trail takes about an hour at child pace and the lot is free. Get in from Waddington Road or West Bradford Road; parking is roadside, or leave the car in town and walk up past the cemetery. The park paths are well made, though the quarry stretch is rougher going. Herons and kingfishers work the river, the Wildlife Trust manages the quarry for wildlife, and on a clear day you get the Forest of Bowland thrown in.
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Wild boar, deer and llamas in a Forest of Bowland valley, with animal feeding, a barrel train and river walks. Small, unslick and all the better for it.

One of England's smallest Norman keeps on a rock above the town, with a labyrinth, sculpture trail and a museum that tells the Ribble Valley's story briskly. The grounds and the views cost nothing.

The Ribble runs shallow over shingle on the town side of the bridge, which is why half of Clitheroe turns up on a warm Sunday. Picnic space, a miniature railway at weekends, free to use.
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