The Trough of Bowland is a valley and high pass in the Forest of Bowland

Forest of Bowland

The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...

 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England.

The pass, reaching 295 m (967.8 ft) above sea level at the head of the valley, links to Wyresdale

Over Wyresdale

Over Wyresdale is a civil parish in the City of Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. It has a population of 348. The parish includes the villages of Abbeystead, Lee, Lower Green Bank, Marshaw and Tarnbrook....

, dividing the upland core of Bowland into two main blocks. Though steep and narrow, the road is the most direct connection between Lancaster

Lancaster, Lancashire

Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...

 and Dunsop Bridge

Dunsop Bridge

Dunsop Bridge is a village within the Ribble Valley borough of Lancashire, England, situated north-west of Clitheroe, south-east of Lancaster and east of Skipton. It is in the civil parish of Bowland Forest High....

, and hence Clitheroe

Clitheroe

Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...

.
The Grey Stone of Trough, at the head of the pass, marks the line of the pre-1974 county

Administrative counties of England

Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative...

 boundary between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire

West Riding of Yorkshire

The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...

.

Definition

The Trough is scenic and popular with visitors, particularly walkers and cyclists, so it is unsurprising that it is sometimes considered synonymous with the Forest of Bowland as a whole. However, it is in fact only a small part of the wider (312 sq.miles) Area of Natural Beauty.

The Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

 indicates the Trough of Bowland to be solely the steep upper valley of Losterdale Brook above Trough Barn. However, the generally-used definition includes:

• the main valleys of Langden Brook and its tributaries, as far as Dunsop Bridge,
• on the Wyresdale side of the pass, the moorland and wooded valley of Trough Beck as far as Trough Bridge; most reasonably extend the western 'boundary' to encompass the rest of the wooded headwater valley of the Wyre
  River Wyre
  The River Wyre is a river in Lancashire, United Kingdom, which flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. It is approximately 28 miles in length...
  
   as far as Marshaw.

Land usage

The Trough is very sparsely populated: there are only two farms on the Langden side, Sykes and Hareden, and, in Wyresdale, the small community of Marshaw. All feature Grade II listed buildings.

Evidence of past industrial use remains in the form of a disused roadside lime kiln and several quarry scars. Smelt Mill is now the headquarters of the Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team

Mountain rescue in England and Wales

Mountain rescue services in England and Wales operate under the umbrella association of the MREW - Mountain Rescue...

.

Water is abstracted from the main streams of the Trough to supply the city of Preston. Water intakes were built at the mouths of Hareden, Losterdale and Langden Brooks in the 1920s, linked by a series of aqueducts to the Alston Reservoirs near Longridge

Longridge

Longridge is a small town and civil parish in the borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is situated north-east of the city of Preston, at the western end of Longridge Fell, a long ridge above the River Ribble. Its nearest neighbours are Grimsargh and the Roman town of Ribchester , ...

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