Egerton to Ramsbottom (almost) 21/07/12

Instead of additional walking on the 19th, I had my parents visit and took a nostalgic trip on the Scarborough Spa Express, getting in a repeat steam-hauled trip on the oft-travelled rails of 30 years ago. Only a three hour turnaround at the coast didn't allow much time for a wander into the unknown, but it did give me time for shopping, and Mountain Warehouse offered me up a pair of new walking boots to replace my leaky pair. So a successful (and expensive!) trip there, then, and as I've got my parents up country, that's a fine excuse to head over to Bolton for a family gathering and for me to get in a walk around the periphery of the West Pennine Moors.

Egerton to Ramsbottom (almost).  8.9 miles

Hocombe Moor and Ramsbottom
Peel Tower from Torra Barn

Getting an early start from My Sister's place is not straight-forward on a Saturday morning however, as advantage has to be taken for my Parents to act as stewards to my nieces whilst she and Dr G can get in an early morning bike ride. So when time comes to get going, it's about 40 minutes later than I'd have liked if we're going to make a lunchtime date at the Chocolate Cafe in Ramsbottom. In response my Sis is doubtful that three folds of Explorer 287 can be walked in three hours, as I am determined that they can. So anyway, 10.10am start time and if the pub is a good place to end a walk, it is also a good place to start one, so it's from the Thomas Egerton on the A666 we go, up through the estates to Cox Green Road, part of our regular stroll circuit around Egerton whenever we need an hour out of the house when visiting. The most immediate concern is whether we'll be going over the top of Cheetham Close as the morning warms up, and the good news is no, we'll be taking the footpath through Turton Golf Course (there are a lot of golf courses turning up on these wanders aren't there?) and from the ridge you can see the view towards most of the path we'll be taking, up to Holcombe Moor and Ramsbottom Peel Tower standing as our destination indicator.

Armsgrove Viaduct & Wayoh Reservoir

From Torra Barn, it's onward up the side of the valley formed by Bradshaw Brook, and we follow a section of the Witton Weavers Way, and that's a long distance path that makes no sense from a viewing of the map, like string dropped randomly on the page, but surely to be worked out and walked in the future. Not the most exciting of stretches, but in a couple of places it looks like the summer's rains have caused several culvert to flood and gouge portions of the track away, and it's along here that I discover that My Sis has a preferred walking pace that is a solid pace faster than mine, so I feel like I'm having to scurry somewhat to keep up with her, which is funny because she's five inches shorter than I am. Beyond the B6391, we wander into the land of reservoirs as the West Pennine Moors form the catchment for the water supply for much of Greater Manchester, and it's to the familiar boundary of Wayoh Reservoir we head, despite struggling to find the gate that leads to NW Water's estate, but getting under the trees gets the heat off as the day had felt like it was getting very warm under the sun, and here the air temperature is such that you wish you weren't walking in short sleeves. Under Armsgrove Viaduct on the Bolton-Blackburn line we go, and across the causeways that shorten the reservoir perimeter and lead to Crow Trees Lane, and completely avoid the town of Edgworth as we hit the ascent of 150 metres that leads to the edge of Holcombe Moor.

Crowthorn School

Halfway up is Crowthorn School, the first National Children's Home established outside of London in 1872 and closed in 2002, now partially redeveloped and surrounded by executive housing builds, a fascinatingly odd location to find on the ascent to the high moors.The high path is met beyond the modest Crowthorn Reservoir at Longshaw Head barn, and it's one of those wonderful contour hugging paths that feel like it should be an ideal cycle route, but for some reason isn't as some sections are not approved as bridleways. My Sis admits that despite living locally for eight years, and having cycled virtually every track in the area, she has never been up here before, and it looked like one of the more obvious paths to me! Still, excellent views to be had up here, with Darwen Tower and Winter Hill in one direction and the shifting vista of Greater Manchester to the south, hard to see down to Bolton though as the Affetside hill seems to obscure it from all angles. We feel like we're making good time at this stage, with the path being quickly walkable and our destination time feeling achievable, but that is all shot down when we come to Holcombe Head, an indentation into the moor side that is almost a mile around without a straight-forward short cut. We had both known it was coming, but had failed to acknowledge how much of a detour it was going to be, it's also used as a military firing range too, but there are no flags up today and you can feel safe wandering into a 'Danger Area'. There's more down and up than I was anticipating along here as the path crosses the beck at the head of the valley, and there's some good gritstone outcropping too, enough to make you feel like you have wandered deep into the middle of nowhere, when in reality a town is only a mile distant in a straight line.


Holcombe Head

We have no short cut options, so the wonders of mobile communications means My Sis can get in touch with Dr G so we can be picked up and not have to walk the last mile into Ramsbottom, but we still have to get to the main road so we haul ourselves along even quicker and the farmsteads start to be habitable instead of derelict as our path swings around into Rossendale and the wind farm on Knowl Moor appears ahead of us. Our path has led us to an elevation well below that of the Peel Tower, and a detour up the extra 50 metres to it is thankfully out of the question, so we leave the local folk pacing that path to make the descent down to the car park on Lumb Carr Road to wait for our ride. We arrive at 1.15pm, and our lift takes a while as Dr G has had to arrange Nieces and Parents to get our table for seven for lunch, and we probably could have made the last mile in the time we waited. Still nice to sit and plan for a while, and already I've hatched my plan for my next visit, in September we'll hit Winter Hill, again.

1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 273.2 miles