Witton Park. Tues 18 Aug 15


Witton Park. Tuesday 18th. August 15.

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15 of us set off from Witton Country Park on a dull but warm morning for this Tuesday walk led by Tom and assisted by Ade. It was good to see Rita out with us again and also Freda, a friend of David Whittaker, who lived nearby and who was doing her first LDWA walk.

We went through Witton Wood and Crow Wood before descending Billinge Hill and Billinge Scarr to reach the busy A677 main road to Blackburn. From here it was uphill again to eventually arrive at Mellor. I say eventually because we did lose a bit of time on the outskirts where, on a signposted right of way, we had to go through a garden that was guarded not only by a black dog the size of a small Shetland pony but, more importantly, by a ferocious sounding and looking German Shepherd. No one from the house came out to us so we tried to find a way round this problem. Mac managed to find a gap in an old metal fence some of us were able to climb over (not very easy though) and the others found a good neighbour who let them go through her house to rejoin the rest of us. After  a short pull we enjoyed a lovely view over the Ribble Valley from Mellor Moor before dropping down to re-cross the A677 for our lunch stop near the Windmill.

The second half of the walk took us over more familiar ground, passing Woodfold Hall and going down Alum Scar and the steep ascent to Close Farm. After a short section of Witton Weavers Way we descended to Pleasington Old Hall then turning left through the cemetery and stopping at the butterfly garden, unfortunately not seeing any. We returned to the cars the way we came out, reaching them at 2.45pm after 10.3 miles. The delay finding a way to get past the dogs had set us back a bit otherwise we would have finished around 2.30pm.

Tom said if we had enjoyed the walk then he had led it, if not then Ade had been the leader but both of them had done a good job and I’m sure everyone had had a good day out!

Thaks to Doreen for the walk report and Shirley for her pictures.

S.