Eight walkers set off at 9am from a very chilly car park by the Atom Panoptican, most of us wearing multiple winter layers and in awe of Ken B's choice of shorts! A short road section led us to Ratten Clough bridge, then through fields to join the Pennine Bridleway down to the Keighley road and up to Knarrs Hill, Black Lane Ends and Piked Edge, where the views were excellent. Next it was on to Kelbrook Moor (Sheep Hill) and a coffee stop in a small wood, from where we could hear the gunfire from Kelbrook shooting range. When a few of us stopped behind a wall to answer nature's call, it was with (belated) anxiety that we realised we were in direct line of fire from the range!

Muddy moorland soon gave way to a quiet tarmac lane (Cob Lane), which we took as a slightly shorter alternative to the muddy fields of the originally-planned route. Cob Lane led us easily on to Noyna End and Cock Hill, from where it was field paths to Bent Lane and a lunch break by Ball Grove lake (in sight of the white house where it turned out that Jackie's grandmother had lived). The second part of the walk began with a short climb to Windy Arbour before dropping to Colne Water which we followed to the bottom of Lenches, for a steep pull up the road to Woolpack Row, before tracks and fields led up to Nun Clough and then Shelfield Lane, Slitterforth and Deerstones, before dropping to our tea stop at a very windy Colden centre, where Ken played us some opera on his phone.

Flasks emptied, we continued on via the Pendle Way and (once again) the Pennine Bridleway along the Boulsworth Dyke track. The top of Boulsworth was covered in cloud, but along the track we continued to enjoy good views. All too soon it was down to Wycoller via Parson Lee and the (very small) sting in the tail of the climb back up to the car park, where we arrived shortly before 4pm. It was a good day out with excellent company (18 miles in total).