Gareth, Glenn and myself were introduced to the latest recruit to West  Lancs. group, namely  Maisie the cute, 8 months old Bedlington cross puppy belonging to Dave Taylor at the start of this extra 16 miles walk from Chatburn.The walk was one we have done several times before starting out along the Ribble Way to West Bradford and continuing along Moor Lane to the ruined Fell Side farm which some of you will remember from one of the Mid-Week Kanters. One of the clues was the face on the inside wall but unfortunately, now, there is very little left of it. The ruin still makes a good coffee stop though.

Leaving there, we took the wet (although not as wet as we thought)  track leading to the edge of Grindleton Fell, turning left to pick up the good track  over Easington Fell before descending fields to Manor House  at Easington which was our lunch stop. From here we followed the valley, through Broadhead Farm with its numerous cats sunning themselves, Harrop Hall and the dreaded Harrop Lodge which is a nightmare to get through because of all the nettles, rubbish and old farm stuff which, I don’t think has ever been cleared.

The afternoon stop saw us at the lovely hamlet of Harrop Fold before climbing past Swan Barn to Grindleton Fell where, now that there has been a lot of de-forestation, the views have really opened out.  Contouring round Simpshey Hill we gradually descended past White Hall into Green Lane  ( a bit black and muddy in places, although we managed to avoid most of it) arriving back at our cars at 4pm.

Maisie had been no trouble at all and this was her longest walk to date but she was soon flaked out in the shade of Dave’s car – I think we’ll be seeing much more of her!