Wildlife-watching campsites near Blackburn

A nationally little-known area of stark moorland, the West Pennine Moors are an upland outlier of the Pennine Range. Lower-lying than the main Pennine Hills, they nevertheless feel wild in many places. This is the closest real countryside to Blackburn, swooping up beyond Darwen, four miles south. The Witton Weavers Way is a handy trail for discovering the reservoir-dotted moors on foot. Campsites are scarce though—the nearest is on the west side of the moors near Chorley.

Northeast of town, the Ribble Valley is the name of the hilly land surrounding the sinuous River Ribble and the area around Clitheroe, 10 miles from Blackburn. The Ribble Valley Jubilee Trail, a circular three-day trek also running through the Forest of Bowland AONB, begins at Whalley and delineates the region’s southeast side closest to Blackburn. Clitheroe has a couple of campsites, and you can pitch in the shadow of barren legend-entrenched Pendle Hill too.

Head west from Blackburn for 13 miles and you’ll reach Penwortham, from where footpaths fan out along the Ribble Estuary, one of England’s largest saltmarshes. It’s an outstanding area for wildlife-watching, especially for wildfowl, as half the estuary is protected as an NNR. The estuary south of the river features numerous hiking trails, including the tail-end of the Ribble Way, as well as hides for bird-spotting and camping overlooking the marshes at Hergest Bank.