Monday 10th October

Monday 10th October 2022

Monthly Walks to Complete the West Pennine Way: Clough Head over to Longshoot.

On a bright and sunny autumnal morning, with rain forecast later, twenty regular walkers set out from Clough Head Café and Information Centre to complete the eighth of ten sections of the West Pennine Way (WPW). We made our way across Grane Road and headed along the Alternative Route, of this section of the WPW down to the embankment of Calf Hey Reservoir where we were pleased to see that the recent rain had started to fill the reservoirs. Calf Hey was the second of the three reservoirs to be constructed, in 1860, and it supplied the population of Rossendale with drinking water.

Calf Hey Reservoir in the distance

Once across the embankment we turned right and followed the WPW through Hog Lowe Clough climbing steeply onto Bentley Moss from where we had good views over to Winter Hill, Darwen Tower and Hog Lowe Pike. After spending time admiring the view, we descended to Broadhead Road where we were concerned that on this section of the route most of our way markers had been removed.

Bentley MossThe WPW then crosses Broadhead Road and follows a path through the fields to down a small footbridge in a shady dell, where we made use of a picnic table, to stop for our morning coffee.

Morning Coffee

Continuing along the alternative route of the WPW we soon joined the original section of the WPW where we started our return journey by heading down to Longshoot. We had not walk far when we had to contend with a large frisky young heifer that was blocking the path. We were lucky to see many difference types of fungi on route due to the time of year and the recent wet weather.

Ink Caps

This section of the route runs parallel with Broadhead Road, first passing through Pastures Farm and then Lower Pastures before reaching Pickup Bank. The most striking building in the village is the Chapel which was first built as an Independent Sunday School in 1834 and consecrated as a chapel in 1860. After passing through the village the route goes by a picnic area with excellent views over to Darwen, where we stopped for lunch in the warm sunshine.

Pickup Bank

Lunch

After lunch we crossed both, Broadhead Road and the Grane Road to get onto Oswaldtwistle Moor and followed the WPW over to Haslingden Moor where we left the route and descended to Clough Head Café having covered 9 stimulating miles.

Back down to Clough Head