Adventures in wet boots

Set off this morning from Clough Foot near Widdop for a very solitary trip up Boulsworth Hill from the south east, returning via the gritstone edges above Widdop reservoir. I set off up a tussocky path across the moor, taking an easier route along the line of a ruined wall up to a shooting track which headed off to the north west to a shooting hut at Greave Clough. I followed the land rover track up the clough across a number of fords, before it ended abruptly at a bank of peat.

The rest of the route up the clough on to the back side of Boulsworth was pretty grim - pathless, soggy and mostly picking a path through unstable rocks, soggy rushes, steep peat banks and very long heather. After what seemed like an hour I emerged knackered on to the moor top, heading towards the Weather Stones.

The going was soft and peaty, with short windblasted grass making for easier walking up the rest of the slope, a hop over a wire fence and I was clambering up through the outcrops before heading across the summit plateau to the trig point, soaking up some panoramic views over to Pendle Hill and the Bowland fells, Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent, and the sweep of moorland to the south and east. I dropped down the steep bank at the far end of the ridge, heading down towards Hey Slacks Clough.

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Passing the Dove Stones to my left, I followed a decent trod down to the clough before a boggy tussocky pathless plod uphill towards Grey Stone Hill. On reaching the ridge the view opened up over Widdop reservoir and the crags.

I opted to drop steadily down the escarpment below the outcrops, through thick spongy dry moss and dead bracken stubble. On reaching Widdop Road at the foot of the bank I followed the road along the side of the reservoir then Graining Water, back to Clough Foot.

Tags: Hikes