October Ramble – Pendle Hill
Some weeks ago, we enjoyed a pleasant, but very hot day out climbing Parlick, during which we discussed the possibilities of an ascent of Pendle later in the year. Bill mentioned that he was going to have a walk in this area soon and kindly offered to lead us on the October walk.
Starting from the delightful village of Barley, set in the most beautiful Lancashire countryside, we left the car park to enter the village, first taking advantage of the public toilets which this little village manages to keep open seven days a week for the benefit of its visitors. From the centre of the village we entered a good footpath, steadily climbing through fields, over streams and heading towards the impressive Pendle House From here, we started the climb proper to the summit, along an excellent engineered path which was very steep but not too long. By now, we were in dense cloud, so the motivation for climbing up mountains, the view, was lost. During the Parlick walk, we were buzzed by very low flying para-gliders, but the foul conditions here kept the broomsticks firmly on the ground!
Eventually, we arrived at the summit and the trig. point with zero visibility and a howling gale. From here, we needed to take care to find the correct path, defined by a line of cairns that led us down into Ogden Clough, a deep valley with a stream at the bottom which looked very Lakeland. About halfway down we came out of the cloud and enjoyed an easy descent to the Ogden Reservoirs and our very late lunch stop, sitting again on a seat dedicated to a late walking enthusiast.
After lunch, it was an easy stroll back to Barley and the end of the walk.
This year we have conquered two peaks and we wondered if there is a third in Lancashire to make a three peaks challenge to equal the three peaks on the other side of the “Cloth Cap Frontier”? Pendle Hill is a popular climb, not too difficult and noted for the marvellous views in all directions, but sadly not today.
Linda & Eddie Grange