25 June 2008

Evening Walk - Rossendale, 25th June

Building on the success of last year’s walk around Haslingden Grane, where I had 14 turn up, this year’s turnout was amazing – 30 turned up, and 28 ended up walking. The weather looked a bit unpredictable but, in the end, the night turned out to be ideal for walking – clear skies with few clouds, and no midges.

Of the 28 walkers, there were 9 club members too – Mike & Sue Squires, Anton, Linda & Victor, my wife Pauline, Clive (?) and a young couple (sorry, I didn’t get your names). I also had a local historian walking with us, as well as one of the farmers. All of them helped contribute to a thoroughly enjoyable walk.

The first part of the walk was the one part I did wonder if everyone would make okay – a steep ascent of about half a mile up Moor Lane to the moorland top, passing a local landmark called Robin Hood’s Well. When this was advertised in my local paper (weekly over a month), this detail about the ascent was edited and omitted, so it came as a bit of a shock to some as to what they came across. Thankfully, everyone got to the top okay.

Stopping to catch our breaths, the views across Rossendale Valley made it all worth it – Pendle Hill, Cowpe Low, the Panoptican above Haslingden, the new wind turbines on Scout Moor, and even a hotel in Manchester. There was no haze and everything was crystal clear.

For here, there was a brief moorland walk allowing everyone to take in the views below, as well as getting their first view of Holcombe Tower (one of the Peel Towers in the area). Arriving at the top of Buckden Woods (impressive with the river running through quite away below us), we had to queue to climb a large stile over a wall, then picked our way carefully through the woods – part of the Stubbins Estate now owned by the National Trust.

Crossing over Holcombe Road, we went back onto the woods again for a while until we came down to the old track bed of the Stubbins to Accrington line (opened in 1848 and closed in1966). This was now part of the National Cycleway and we would be on it for about half a mile, and keep it in view for most of the remainder of the journey (various viaducts hidden in the trees. Below us, to one side, was the current East Lancs Railway line that runs from Rawtenstall to Bury. A shame we didn’t see any trains, as this would have rounded off the evening nicely.

At the end of this section, we entered the village of Irwell Vale where the rivers Ogden and Irwell meet. The walk down the Bowker Street (named after a local mill owner from 19th century) was a nice change from modern streets. Leaving Irwell Vale, we did our final ascent back upto the pub, arriving back after a 2 hour walk. Luckily for us, there was a good selection of real ales on – Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, and the stronger Moorhouses Pendle Witches Brew.

Before everyone left to go their separate ways, I received some requests for more evening walks, and exhausted my supply of club cards (detailing club website and contact details). I know Mike Squires also took some details to be passed onto our Membership Secretary – hopefully we’ll get some new members out of it.

I would like to thank all that turned up, especially club members travelling over from Burnley. One walker had even brought some friends who’d arrived that day from Scarborough.

I am currently looking at a new route to walk, and will advertise details shortly

Stuart McDonald