Another last minute decision saw us travel along the motorway to a place called
Ramsbottom, an unspoiled Victorian mill town nestled in the West Pennine Moors. Although we have been to this small town before, we have never walked in the area and what made us decide to go there was the sight we see as we travel along the motorways. A large Tower overlooking what seems the whole of the northwest of England. I have for some time just wanted to find out what and where it was and it was Jill who looked it up and decided that we should pay it a visit, so Saturday afternoon, off we popped. 25 minutes later we had parked up near to the train station at Ramsbottom and started the steep walk through the streets. We had found a good site for the walking route and quite a few other localish walks all round the Manchester area.
MANCHESTER WALKS
Ramsbottom certainly has it's fair share of steep roads and the one we were on had a handrail fixed to the walls to help you on the ascent! After a lot of huffing and puffing we soon found ourselves on the signed track that leads up to
PEEL TOWER with great views over a wide expanse of the North West on England. One thing that does stick out is the
WIND FARM ON SCOUTS MOOR as it is the largest onshore wind farm in England and can be seen from miles around.
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| Our route for the day |
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| The steep climb out of town |
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| Handrail to assist you |
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| Rough track leading up to Peel Tower |
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| Peel Tower |
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| Views from Peel Tower over to the Scout Moor Wind Farm |
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| View from Peel Tower |
From here we followed the path that leads across Holcomb Moor and over to Harcles Hill and then onto another monument,
PILGRIMS CROSS
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| Harcles Hill |
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| View back to Peel Tower from Harcles Hill |
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| Pilgrims Cross with the top of Peel Tower just showing in the distance |
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| Pilgrims Cross |
Also in the area is a military training ground which thankfully wasn't in use on this particular day!
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| DANGER!! |
We followed the path that eventually took us to Buckden Wood on the Stubbins Estate which is part of the National Trust. It was given to them in 1947 by a Colonel Porritt in memory of his son, Richard, who was killed at Dunkirk
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| Approach to Buckden Wood |
After going through fields, over streams and the
RIVER IRWELL we found ourselves coming back in to town and back to the car. A pleasent four hours in nice weather exploring another place that we haven't been to before and only half an hour from our front door.
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| River Irwell |
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| Through farm fields with Peel Tower overlooking on the far right |
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| River Irwell |
All what was left was to have a nice selection of cheese and fruit :-)
THIS IS THE ROUTE WE FOLLOWED
