Tuesday Walk April 8^th

The start of this walk was from Spring Wood car park just outside Whalley and for the 14 people who turned up, the weather, although a bit nippy, held the promise of a fine day ahead. After the initial climb up Clerk Hill, which Dave promised was to be  the only climb of the day, we continued along the Witches Walk eventually crossing the A59 and turning left on the old road towards Barrow. (not the one in Furness!)

We carried on crossing saturated fields , through Standen  Hey Community Woodland, and picked the Ribble Way up at Fishes and Peggy Hill farm which we followed to meet the main road near Great Mitton.   More fields and an interesting section of woodland brought us to the confluence of the River Ribble and the River Calder with lovely old Hacking Hall in view on the opposite bank.  Here we stopped for lunch before retracing our steps back to the main road.

This time we turned right and went round the path passing Calderstones Hospital to once again walk alongside the River Calder towards Whalley and finishing our 11.5 miles walk going by the weir, which was in full flow, reaching the car park about 2.45pm.