Adventures in wet boots

Today I went to the Lancashire side of t’ tops for a frankly knackering ten mile circuit, which involved climbing Boulsworth Hill in the baking afternoon sun. I must be off my head.  

After a false start (as in I set off along the wrong side of the valley and had to double back to the car park after half a mile or so… must start checking the map before setting off half-cocked   ) I set off down a tree lined sunken lane to the abandoned farming village of Wycoller, now a popular beauty spot owned by Lancashire Council. The estate features 12th century vaccary walling, made up of standing slabs of stone, from Norman times when the area was a monastic cattle farm.

On reaching Wycoller I quickly passed the visitor centre/toilets/other people-infested things and followed a path along Wycoller Beck towards the moors, passing a primitive clapper bridge on the way. I opted to stay with the beck at a junction of paths and followed Turnhole Clough up through the woods then out into open country, whereupon the path petered out and a bit of scrambling over rocks and stream banks and through soggy rushes followed, up to the edge of the Wycoller Park where I clambered out of the clough. The beck was crossed here by a footbridge carrying the Pendle Way round above Saucer Hill Clough, and off along the foot of Boulsworth Hill, so I followed it across the moor and along the side of a stone wall towards Boulsworth Dyke.

Eventually the path arrived at the bottom of the footpath loop leading up Boulsworth Hill. I continued to the far path, and set off up the side of Bedding Hill Moor. The moor was still fairly soggy after a spell of dry weather, with loads of bog-cotton in flower turning patches of the fell side white. It was pretty steep, and the climb seemed to go on forever under the hot sun. I reached the Abbot Stone and paused for breath before continuing towards the summit, though the gradient was easing now thankfully. I know, I’m unfit.
The upper portion of the hill was peaty and riven by groughs, but the path rose steadily between gritstone outcrops before reaching the summit, Lad Law (517 metres/1699 feet). Its the highest point in the Pennines between the Dark Peak and the Dales, and the 360 degree views were well worth the climb and a few minutes to savour - with Pendle Hill and the Bowland fells on the western skyline, Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent to the northwest and the other dales peaks including Great Whernside and Buckden Pike further east, Keighley Moor and the upper Worth valley, the Bronte moors to the east including the long ridge of Ovenden Moor with its windfarm, and the jumble of the Alcomden stones in the shadow of Crow Hill, and Stoodley Pike and the Dark Peak horizon to the south. I couldn’t have picked a better day for it.

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I headed across the moor top towards Crow Hill a couple of miles to the north east, passing the outcrops of the Great Saucer Stones and the Fox Stones along the way before trogging across an undulating expanse of heather, tussock grass and bare peat - while I needed to keep an eye on where my feet were going through the heather it wasn’t too wet for the most part, I didn’t sink anyway.   The most irritating part of the traverse across the tops was a plague of small black flies, which kept swarming me when I disturbed a group in passing. They didn’t seem to bite but the buggers were itchy when I got a faceful of em, which was often.   The boggy ground was crisscrossed by ‘grips’, small drainage channels, which caught me out once or twice. Eventually I approached Crow Hill (458 metres/1500 feet) and climbed its modest rise for a nice view over the Worth valley and the Alcomden stones a mile away.

After enjoying the views (and the break from the attentions of the flies) I set off down the north side of Crow Hill towards Watersheddles reservoir, through springy bilberry and young heather. This was a lovely stretch to recharge my batteries, and I soon found the beginnings of a clough to follow along side down the fell - however around a hundred and fifty feet above the valley it all went a bit pear shaped as the slope became very steep with a good drop into the clough to my left. I opted to scramble straight down through the undergrowth, before spotting what I thought was a shooting track up the clough. I gleefully dropped down into the clough by slithering down a peat bank only to find it was a path to nowhere, however the clough was relatively easy walking with a bit of crisscrossing to find suitable tussocks and rocks. A little more tussock hopping brought me to the bottom of the slope, where a stile led to a shooting estate track leading round the side of Wycoller Ark towards the Bronte Way.

The return to Wycoller was a pleasant winding down after the exertions of the rough moorland, the path winds through pleasant hill farming country down through the Vale of Wycoller before crossing the fields back to the car park. It was an exhausting way to spend a hot Sunday afternoon, but definitely an enjoyable one.

Tags: Hikes

Set out from Horton-in-Ribblesdale for a proper limestone country yomp this morning. The high point *cough* was to be Pen-y-Ghent (694 metres/2277 feet) towering over the village, but I was going the long way round.
I passed the Pen-y-ghent Cafe, crossed over and followed the Pennine Way for a while, climbing up a stony bridleway between limestone walls, heading north west towards Horton Scar.The way climbed steadily between green fields dotted with Swaledale sheep, brown cows and frisky rabbits, winding around the side of a dry valley before passing the outcrops of Horton Scar on the left. I got a bit camera happy on this walk.  
After a mile and a half or so of steady trogging I took a detour and crossed a stile off to the right at a junction of paths, sticking with the Pennine Way towards Pen-y-Ghent a little way in order to visit Hunt Pot which was hiding in a crinkle a bit further up the fell. Its bigger than it looks and I made damn sure I wasn’t going to slip down it. A nosy sheep got into the shot here.

Considering the detour to be well worth the ascent I returned to the stile and followed the path to the right signposted Foxup. After a short distance the path reached the lip of Hull Pot, which is ginormous - 300 feet from end to end, 70 across and around 70 feet straight down. I paused to watch a stoat hunting among the rocks on the other side of the chasm before following the edge of the pothole to the right, clambering over a stile and out across Horton Moor. The path climbed soggily but steadily to the corner of a wall before undulating alongside it over the moor towards the watershed where Ribblesdale meets Littondale, Pen-y-Ghent Side looming overhead to the right. This stretch was lonely and wild, feeling utterly remote. Great stuff.

After passing the headwaters of Foxup Beck and through some limestone outcrops, a fingerpost indicated a faint soggy path up the side of Foxup Moor towards Plover Hill. This was the strenuous bit - some seven hundred feet of ascent straight up the side of the fell, winding through the limestone edge with only a little scrambling needed followed by a steady pull alongside a stone wall to the summit plateau of Plover Hill, which is 680 metres high (2231 feet). An untidy little cairn suggests the top, but its flat and boggy on the top - so the high point is the ladder stile.   There were some great long distance views from the broad ridge, back west towards Ingleborough and Whernside and east into Silverdale and Littondale, the hump of Pen-y-Ghent itself beckoning at the other end of the ridge. I followed the wall along the ridge as it dropped steadily towards a saddle, the going was soft and peaty underfoot but not too bad - in November this would have been a proper bog-trot. I crossed another ladder stile at the saddle before starting the final trudge back up to Pen-y-Ghent itself.

A steady fifteen minutes trogging saw me at the top of the hill next to the trig point, sat on a bench scoffing butties. A brief pause to let em go down while I soaked up the breathtaking views later I was headed off down the steep end of Pen-y-Ghent.

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And steep it is. The ‘direct’ route passes through a couple of layers of rock, requiring some degree of easy scrambling in either direction. The path here had been reinforced/remanufactured, presumably to reduce erosion and the number of folk barming theirselves falling, progress down the flank of the hill was rapid. I paused at a gate for a look back at what I’d just clambered down and the fells across the valley.
The path followed a wall down and across the side of the fell through Brackenbottom Scar, requiring a little more scrambling, and on down to Brackenbottom Farm before a lane through a wooded glen led back to Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Best hike so far, hands down. 

Tags: Hikes

I was ready for a break from the attic by late afternoon so I slung my gear in the backpack I bought this morning and caught a bus to Riddlesden, with the intention of following the canal towpath to Three Rise Locks at Bingley then climbing the valley side to Altar Crag and heading across the tops to Hainworth then down the hill home. No photos today, cos you’ve seen them before - canal, check, views from Druid’s Altar, check, Hainworth, check.  Was still pleasant though, it was a bit overcast after a cool rainy day so the towpath was pretty quiet and I didn’t see a soul between Bingley and home. The pull up Altar Lane from Ireland Bridge at Bingley is a slog though, the lane rises about 600 feet in a little over a mile which isn’t that steep a gradient but it was enough to remind me I haven’t done this for a couple of months. By the time I reached Altar Crag I felt I’d earned my tea and sat on the edge for a few minutes, admiring the view while I wolfed my pasties. All the hard work was done at this point with only another hundred feet or so of ascent, along gently rising farm tracks and footpaths to the end of Cradle Edge a mile away. I turned down Back Shaw Lane and followed the road downhill to the top of Glen Lee before heading off across the meadows towards Hainworth, a pleasant stroll through spring flowers (and a bunch of beef calves I startled into fleeing) followed by a scrapyard, then down a steep cobbled lane and through a wood back home. It was about seven miles I reckon, and was nice to blow the cobwebs away (though I have a couple of small blisters on the bottom of my heels thanks to too many surfaced paths. bugger bugger bugger).

Tags: Hikes