Wednesday 18th February 2026

Wednesday 18^th February 2026

Eastern Hills Ramble

This walk was the last in the Winter Series of walks, which means it was the last to include an indoor lunch break. Twenty four walkers set out from Greenmount and headed through the fields to Redisher Lane. After reaching the gate, leading into the woods, we turned right and joined a narrow footpath which took us into Holcombe Brook, where we crossed the road and walked down Wood Hey Road, into Holcombe Valley. At the bottom of the valley, we turned left and climbed up some very muddy steps to join a path, that overlooked Summerseat. At the end of the path, we turned left and walked along the ancient cobbles into the village of Nuttall.

Once in the park we turned right, crossing the small footbridge over the brook, before starting the steep climb up the steps known locally as Jacob’s Ladder. When we carried out the recce for this walk the path was blocked by a fallen tree, which we reported to the local Footpath Officer, and he has since had the tree removed.

Continuing the route, we walked over the motorway bridge, and headed through the fields to Manchester Road, which we crossed and started the climb up to the ruins of Grant’s Tower. The tower was built in remembrance of the Grant family, who established a calico printing business in the area. The tower, which was built in 1827, stands on the spot where the Grant family first viewed the Irwell Valley in 1783, having arrived from Morayshire, Scotland. Due to a lack of maintenance, the tower collapsed in 1944. We took the opportunity of the seating around the tower, to take our morning coffee before continuing the route up to Bury Old Road, where we turned left and joined the first footpath on our right where we began the steep climb, against a very strong and cold head wind, up to the trig point, on Harden Moor.

 

The descent from the moor took us down to Buckhurst and onto  Nangreaves, where it was just a short walk to our lunch stop at Falshaw’s Café. After a hearty meal we walked through Summerseat back to Greenmount having covered eleven windy miles.