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Date: 29 Jul 2024
Start: / Finish: Littleborough.
Maps: Explorer 021 South Pennines.
| Day 1 | Blackstone Edge, Blake Moor & Stony Edge | 11.0miles / 1550 feet (17.7km / 473m) |
| Day 2 | Freeholds Top, Rough Hill & Crook Moor | 9.2miles / 1512 feet (14.7km / 461m) |
A 2-day circuit of the south Pennine moors and reservoirs around the Calderbrook valley north of Littleborough.
The outward eastern section traverses the flank of Clegg Moor to join the line of the old Roman road ascending to Blackstone Edge and descending an old packhorse trail to the Warland group of reservoirs. Good tracks and trails around the eastern edges and moors of this region give miles of very easy walking with no ascent.
The return leg descends to cross the valley at Walsden and ascends the western section to its highest point at Freeholds Top above Ramsden Clough. The route ascends around Rough Hill and traverses Crook Moor to the western outskirts of Littleborough.
The map of the reservoirs - Warland, Light Hazzles and White Holme - suggests an effective water catchment area with numerous streamlets shown. It also hints that collecting water here on a backpack would present little difficulty but it's an illusion: in fact, not just here in this area but for the entire route after Red Brook early on day one, we saw no possibilities at all for suitable water. Fortunately we had surmised this from distant memories of day walks in this area and, expecting hot days, we packed enough water to last until the second morning and tolerated the extra weight. We were counting on replenishment in Walsden and we bought supplies at the Post Office.
We had suffered for a week or two from something with flu-like symptoms but we felt sufficiently recovered to try this modest route, a very slow business when coupled with the heat but an enjoyable walk.
We left the station to join the Rochdale canal and soon crossed it via a lock to pick up the Rochdale Way / Pennine Bridleway, one of several paths to reach the flanks of Clegg Moor. The way turns northwards onto a good track shadowing a line of pylons to Lydgate where the old Roman road ascends eastwards by Red Brook to Blackstone Edge and the Aiggin Stone.
The line continues over the crest and descends an old Packhorse Road, though not furnished with the flat stones typical of such routes. It is now merely a walker's path with some very damp peaty bits. The line reaches a pool at the start of a track heading north-west to the A58 and Blackstone reservoir.
A short walk up the road is the start of the metalled track to White Holme reservoir. At the eastern tip of the water, a good path continues around the flanks of Blake Moor following White Holme Drain. Blake Moor is the name used by the OS for the 420m trig point in the middle of this moorland and shown on the map as Little Holder Stones, a spot we visited many years ago in hardier days. The circuit of the upper three reservoirs is now a signed route from White Holme.
The Turley Holes area around Blake Moor is one of the conservation projects by the MoorLIFE initiative.
The northern side gives a view of Withens Clough reservoir below and Stoodley Pike prominent on the skyline. The path meets the Pennine Way and follows its paved course by Warland Drain to the northern tip of Warland reservoir.
We took the footpath along the northern shore with a view to exploring Stony Edge for a pitch, but the prospects were grim indeed: the whole area was gritstone boulders and slabs, tangled heather and big tussocks. We tried several excursions from the path and were about to give up and return to a fallback spot on grassy ground we had noted earlier, but we had one last try: against all the odds we found an excellent patch of flat level ground among the rocks that yielded one of the most comfortable pitches we can remember, notwithstanding the midges that were out in force when the breeze died.
We returned to the northern tip of the reservoir where a gate leads onto a bridge across a small ravine to the southern side. The map shows a public footpath heading west from this south side, but on the ground the path is obvious and starts on the north side as seen in the photo below. The path is a good one marked by yellow-topped posts and traces a line farther north than the right-of-way on the map. It converges with the map line approaching Cat Stones with a view across the valley to Shore Moor.
A steep descent meets the valley road at Walsden Post Office where we restocked with water. The road opposite climbs westwards to Brown Road Farm and becomes a wide metalled track labelled Foul Clough Road. Another minor deviation from the map at a footpath junction SD 91773 21962: continue on the track a short way to a yellow-topped post where a faint path departs north-westwards below the pylons to ascend Burnt Hills. The line crosses a rather overgrown tussocky dip to the final ascent to Freeholds Top trig point where the slopes have been planted with mixed native tree saplings.
We last stood at this trig point back in 1996 and have forgotten all the details, but we're pretty sure it wasn't like this…
The cows had calves with them… we carefully opened the gate and purposefully walked around them avoiding eye-contact: we were wearing shades which always helps a lot - it's all in the eyes.
We took the path south-eastwards to the farm track at Coolam and crossed a ravine to the ascent around the eastern shoulder of Rough Hill and its wind turbines. The path crosses the Long Causeway packhorse route to the flank of Crook Moor: here is another deviation from the map, the path ascends to traverse the hill higher up the slope to arrive at a very smart circular windshelter, marked on the map but unlabelled. Watergrove reservoir is in view below.
A very good path descends southwards by Turn Slack Dam to join the path around Ratcliffe Hill to the outskirts of Littleborough.
