I really should make a category for this!

The walk of Sunday, 23rd April, 2023

According to Wikipedia, we can deduce that Winter hill has 12 summits classed as “nearby”. My take on this has always been that these are the child summits of Winter Hill or that it is their ‘parent peak’. This is the list:

 

It occurred to me that since the brand migration from Fat Goat Blogs to West Pennines Wanderer – which kind of professes to being an expert in the West Pennines, then I should probably get some sort of experience in summits other than Winter Hill and Rivington Pike! Crooked Edge Hill is on the Anglezarke Amble – so I am fairly familiar with this one, but as to the other ones – sheesh! I needed to acquire some expertise in my homeland!

• …won’t stop yapping.
• …attempts to trip me up by being on the end of a lead which is 20′ long!

I was hopeful that a traversal of Makinson Moor, the host bit of land to these tops, would go some way towards not meeting this criteria. I was pleasantly surprised. The walk from the car park to Matchmoor Lane did pass all of the usual scenery, the Japanese (not Italian), Lake, Rivington Pike, the view of Bolton Wanderers stadium etc but it was a long old traipse over to an environment which I was more accustomed to driving over – many, many years ago. Although I have yet to measure this stretch of the route, I’d hazard a guess that this would be around two miles – a fair old walk in its own right all things considered. I was passed by an outraged cyclist (is there another type) who had a scarlet face when voicing his opinion of a BMW driver attempting to perform a 3-point-turn amidst the tightest spot on Georges Lane – the road being closed off fairly close to here. I deduced the driver must have come off Walker Fold Lane then down Matchmoor and onto Georges, the cyclist wasn’t giving the rationale much thought other than how it was inconveniencing him. Hey-ho! I was still enjoying the walk and all of the lovely novelty of being near, but not in, familiar terrain. And then I rounded the corner and ono Matchmoor, and I’d forgotten how energy-zapping it could be, no wonder my little Ford Escort Mk 2 used to struggle!

After passing several goats in a field (how refreshing!) I sat down to take in some views and have a breather – it was around 15C by now, whilst a group of Mountain Bikers very slowly passed by me, each had a comment as to how much my mode of transport was so much better than theirs – I tried not to agree (out loud). In time, after passing by the single longest barb-wire fence I’d ever seen (erected by Montcliffe Quarries) I found my track which would convey me to my moor. I was chuffed to pieces at its dryness and clarity and only every once-in-a-while was there any kind of standing water to evade – this was magical!

I’d taken a screen grab of my route from Bing’s interpretation of OS maps but the route was now so clear that I wouldn’t bother looking at it for the rest of the walk, within twenty metres there was a well sign-posted finger post indicating the way to, way to, actually I can’t remember to where it pointed but I assumed that this would lead to White Brow and I wasn’t wrong! I grabbed a rather rough rock with a girth somewhere in between that of a cricket ball and golf ball believing I would add this to any cairn at the top of White Brow. There was none, so I started one! Normally this sort of behaviour is condemned by the purists, barking that too many cairns causes confusion, well in this locale there were none, so I did my own thing. I do hope others add to it over the years, it may take a while to amass a decent size, if at all. It was so lovely to have the hill top to myself!

Adam Hill was next on the agenda and I’d hazard that the summit of this was within three hundred metres away from White Brow. The terrain was a little bit wetter but the route just as easy to follow, the top of this little treasure yielded a cairn thrice the size of its neighbour! The view to neighbouring Crooked Edge Hill was so tantalizing as to make its ascension today imperative! I just had to make sure to follow the right path, no unnecessary detours and to head for what I knew. In this case it was the metres-wide tarmac road which leads all the way up to and past Winter Hill mast, not easy to miss in this environ! I crossed Winter Hill (the road!) and headed up the increasingly muddy and yet also rocky path to the summit. It wasn’t hard going but then not exactly carpet slippers neither!

The summit bagged I considered my next move, taking into account the darkening of the sky and the fact that lefty was by now beginning to moan a bit – it’s what lefties do! I sat down and had my Chicken Caesar wraps, which were okay and I wish I could remember from where I had bought them. I wondered if the path I thought I make out some fifty metres ahead of me was much used – and therefore useful to me and within minutes my question was answered as a large group of children accompanied by their parents / guardians dropped south along this very path. Excellent I thought, and after little thought I wandered off to this rural expressway only to acknowledge that it wouldn’t take me over to Smithills Moor and I kind of wanted to go there again.  I met with another walker who seemed to be in the same quandary as to how to get over towards Rivington Pike via the moor but he was more positive than me, and boldly strode out in a westerly direction. I followed him, but not for long as he was going at an altogether illegal pace (from lefty’s perspective!) and, soon enough; there came along a drop to which neither of my knees took a liking!

A couple – who looked an awful lot like two people I had met on an Amble in 2020 were very close behind. It has to be said that they were much younger than me and subsequently braver, I turned ninety degrees left, back to the path I had seen the throng heading some moments ago and took in the ridge path all the way back to its termination at the main ‘Pike Cottage – Two Lads’ track. This meant more downhill work but at least this was familiar ground with no sudden drop to my death thrown in! Not that this decision pleased Lefty in any way! In the distance I heard the girl from ‘the couple’ let out the odd scream – nothing sinister, she just didn’t appreciate the drop off Crooked Edge and onto Rivington Moor, good judgement call!

Having cursed each and every step on the drop down to Belmont Road (because there just aren’t enough places named that in this area already!) I limped past the ‘Dog Hotel’ that was, and is now a café of sorts but resolved not to go back to the car via the same route that I had set off on the outward leg. This meant taking a left-hand-turn of which I had no prior knowledge, this seldom works out well! Thankfully, I recognised my immediate environ and was okay with where I was going up until I had passed the final set of Lord Leverhulme’s steps – there are dozens of the buggers! The fork at which I had arrived featured a rather slippery-looking slope to my left; which to my reckoning would take me further away from the car park.

The right hand option was up a slope – never a desirable option on the inwards section of any walk but the last thing I wanted by now was to extend the route – I’m not really match-fit yet. I went right, with a certain mumbling about ‘all these paths but not a bloody useful one’ selfishly rising up sporadically. And lo and behold; in due course I arrived at the head of the steep slope which I had ascended three hours before! This is not a severe drop, in the reverse direction it is unquestionably a slog but as of yet I am unaware of the adjective for the downhill equivalent – a stumble? In my attempts at avoiding as many things human as possible I sought to adhere to the quieter paths and this did work well for me all the way back to the rear of the Great House Barn where the bikers were out in numbers. My quiet was over but I was not concerned about this as lefty was being by now a major distraction. Ultimately I hobbled to my car at around 14:20 which meant I had been out for four-hours and ten-minutes, longer than my previous walks this year and with a longer distance if not greater altitudes covered.

Summary

The weather gods had been kind to me on this day, dry for the most part, with a refreshing drop of rain in the latter part of my route. It’s nice that there were many pedestrians out and about but not so many as to feel crammed-in or even slightly impaired, there is enough space for us all at Rivington – you’ve just to go off the beaten track to be sure of acquiring your own. I’m becoming increasingly fond of this area, if more than a little astounded at my previous lack of observation of its wonderful waterfalls, majestic woods and superabundance of wildlife – I couldn’t count the number of different bird songs I’d heard, a real treasure. I’m very pleased to have added both of these minor tops to my completed list and both are worthy of further visits as components of greater treks or simply as time away and in my own head space independently. White Brow has crept inside me and there is no better way of describing Adam Hill as a gateway to walking adventures of the future – my future and whilst my heart may well belong to Pendle at least now it has, finally, good company!

• Brown Lowe
• Egg Hillock
• Whimberry Hill

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