The August Ramble – Longridge Fell
Liz and Pete were in charge this month and the walk was one of our local gems, Longridge Fell.
Meeting at the church, our party, including Pauline on her first outing with us, headed up the hill in three cars and parked at the Jeffrey Hill car park. From here, we walked along the road towards the New Drop for a little way and then picked up a footpath that took us towards the trig- point. Here we crossed a wall and entered the dense forest. Longridge Fell is notorious for poor drainage and extreme mud, but our walk today was pleasantly dry and the weather turned out better than forecast and a must for this fell, clear, so that the stunning views can be enjoyed.
We now joined a wide forestry road and noted that many trees had recently been felled, leaving a somewhat ugly landscape. The road eventually came to the lane that leads towards Clitheroe, but instead of following this, we joined a path on the inside of the wall and this path eventually took us back up the hillside and was very steep which caused a lot of frantic undressing. After much puffing and panting, we arrived at the top and joined another forestry road and soon our lunch stop. This resting place was quite stunning, two long logs placed in a clearing facing north-east and affording fabulous views towards Chipping, Parlick, Beacon Fell and the Fylde Coast. Our Bolton friends were very impressed that Pete got us to the lunch stop at exactly noon!
Now it was back along the north flank of the fell towards the trig-point. Here, the landscape opened up, giving us more views and the weather suddenly got hotter as we returned to the car park via a northerly track.
Many thanks to Liz and Pete for their efforts in guiding us around this splendid fell and congratulations to Pauline for completing her first walk with us.
Eddie Grange