Friday 22nd June 2018

FRIDAY 22nd JUNE 2018

WALK 6 of the COME WALKING SERIES

RIVINGTON

 

 

The walk started on a warm sunny evening at Rivington Hall Barn, where we shared the car park with guests attending a wedding at the barn. Forty-one walkers left the barn and headed up through the gardens, which are in the process of renovation after many years of decay. The estate has been owned by many families, over the last 700 years, and was acquired by Liverpool Corporation in 1974 to protect their water supply.

 

 

 

 

 

However, it was Lord Leverhulme who created the park and terraced gardens that we now made our way through. We stopped to admire the, summer houses, cascades and pathways before arriving at the Japanese Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once out of the gardens toilets before we climbed steeply to Rivington Pike, which was built as a hunting lodge in 1733. For here we had excellent views over the Fylde Coast, Manchester, North Wales and to the rear Winter Hill.

After spending some time at the summit we descended back down into the gardens, we were pleased to see that work had begun on restoring the public, and headed to the remains of The Bungalow, which was Lord Leverhulme’s residence when visiting the estate.

 

 

 

 

 

We then walked down the stone steps to what is left of The Orchestra Lawn and at this point we found that many of the paths were closed due to development work but we managed to go down to view the Italian Lake, which had been drained of water for repair. Climbing back up the path we walked to the Pigeon Tower, which was also being repaired, from here we had good views of the coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we made our way back to the barn calling off to see The Seven Arch bridge on the way having covered a comfortable 4 miles