Distance: 21 miles
Ascent: 1000m
Weather: cool in wind, bright and dry
Seen: Kestrel, wheatears, lambs, mountain hare, small tortoiseshells, bad spelling.
Our plan to set off early was slightly spoiled by our chosen carpark being commandeered by a film crew with lots of trucks and trailers. So we had to drive a bit further and park along the A640 to set off from there. We walked over White Hill on the Pennine Way and through said carpark (there was a man combing his hair in truck wing mirror but I wasn't brave enough to ask him what they were filming.)
As we crossed the M62 footbridge a decision was made to make the walk quite long and head over Blackstone Edge to the Aiggen Stone and follow Blackwood Edge Road and go over Dog Hill. The path was slightly wet in places but nothing that couldn't be easily skirted by those not wearing waterproof shoes. We stopped for lunch by a rocky shelter and pondered what bees do for food up on Rishworth Moor at this time of year. We walked along the path of the old road until we reached the wall at Privy Clough where we met a couple of chaps with very large motorbikes contemplating their route. We left them there - contemplating that in a bog, a pair of walking boots is far more appropriate than pair of wheels with half a ton of bike on top.
Finding the steps over the wall, we headed down off Shrimp Hill down a farm track, seeing lots of little lambs and a flock of wheatears. The track went through the middle of a little hamlet, with comedy signs on their gates, and then under Booth Wood Reservoir, up a steep wooded hillside and on to a track which goes under the M62 motorway, at the farm in the middle of the carriageways. It must be a noisy place to live, but the farmer, whom we saw a couple of times, seemed very friendly.
We left the track and climbed the hill on open access land, crossing a couple of lanes, negotiating a footpath detour around Scammonden Reservoir and passing by a farm / scrapyard, before coming out onto Slaithwaite Moor.
Dropping down into Marsden (passing a lot of pissed up people heading for the station on the ale trail) we took a footpath over a tiny bridge, passed the church.We were still feeling quite energetic, so decided not to take the opportunity of a short cut back to the car, but took the lane passed the factory and up the hundreds* (*maybe a slight exaggeration) of steps (complete with obligatory helpful people pointing out they were finding it much easier going down. Thanks) We took the lower level path around the top reservoir and crossed the footbridge. Up on Wessenden Moor navigation is easy, just follow the pavement, we saw a mountain hare, brown on his back with white winter fur around his tail, which we saw quite clearly as he scarpered.
Around Swellands Reservoir it started getting chilly as the sun dropped. The path leads around the water and then away to the west on stone slabs as it crosses the hill towards the A62 and the Pennine Way. The Way lead across Standedge and back to the car.
