Brockmill - Tues. 10th. June 14

In contrast to our walk the previous weekend, it was a pleasant mild, mainly sunny morning as our group of 12 headed out fom the car park at Brockmill. The first half of our walk took us through attractive woodland alongside the River Brock, downstream as far as Walmsley Bridge, where we turned abruptly right and up hill, along a minor road, as far as Clarkson's Farm. From there we followed mainly field paths as far as Calder Vale, passing by several tastefully done up farmhouses and cottages on the way. One of the properties we passed through was the open farm at Cobble Hey, with it's gardens and assortment of rare breed animals. We had our lunch break in the peaceful churchyard at Calder Vale, situated some quarter of a mile from the village, alongside the school, but up quite a steep path. It must be their way of keeping the villagers in good shape.

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Continuing on we took field paths up to Stang Yule, then on tracks and the private road, past Bleasdale Tower, almost to Bleasdale School, where we turned back on ourselves and headed down into Bob's Wood and the River Brock. Here our walk leader, John, took most of us by surprise, as he took us away from the River and uphill to the lower slopes of Beacon Fell as far as Heatherways, then in a nasty sharp thunderstorm, past Higher, Middle and Lower Lickhurst and down to our cars at Brockmill. The combination of quite a number of stiles, gates, slippery sections, having to put our cagoules on and off several times and the walk being a mile or so longer than usual, took us beyond the normal finish time of around half past two. Thanks John for an enjoyable 11 mile walk, but a pity about the rain at the end. Thank goodness for modern waterproofs!

Stan.