Wednesday 23rd August 2023

Wednesday 23^rd August 2023

The Halo Panopticon and Cribden Circular

On a damp and misty morning sixteen walkers met on Hug Rake Road, Haslinden and headed down to the bottom of the road where we turned left into Rock Hall Road. After walking a short distance, we climbed over a stile on our left and walked up the steep path to Cribden End Lane, taking care not to stray too near to the cows in the field. Once on the lane it was a short walk up to The Halo. The Halo is one of four panopticons in Lancashire the other three being, The Singing Ringing Tree, at Crown Point, that overlooks Burnley, The Atom, in Wycoller Country Park, and The Colourfields, in Blackburn Corporation Park. Whilst we were admiring the structure the clouds started to lift and the rain stopped so we were able to see views over the Rossendale Valley.

After retracting our steps, for a short distance, we joined a footpath that took us through the fields to the foot Cribden Hill (401m). Once we had climbed to the summit, and got our breath back, we had even better views of the Lancashire landscape.

Our route then followed the waymarked footpath over a very wet Cribden Moor, passing through several stiles, and eventually arriving at a field where a herd of cows were kindly blocking the next stile. As the cows could not be encouraged to move, we had no choice but to seek an alternative route. Once back on track we found a comfortable banking on which to enjoy our morning coffee.

Continuing along the route we passed through Croft Top Equestrian Centre, and on to the King’s Highway, said to be an ancient pilgrim’s way. From here we turned left and walked into Stonefold, a small hamlet that has associations with Charles Wesley. After a short distance we turned right into Northfield Road and walked into Rising Bridge where we ate lunch in a small park. Once across Manchester Road we headed up Round Hill Lane, and across Round Hill Road into Moor Lane where the lane eventually took us up to the lower slopes of Thirteen Stone Hill, looking across the valley we could see most of our morning’s walk including views of the Halo.

After turning right, we made our way to Cob Castle Road, where we turned right and walked down the road back into Haslingden. The final section of the walk took us along Flip Road and up to St James’ Church and back to Hud Rake, having covered 7.5 energetic miles.