Wainright Way Stage 2. Whalley to Dunsop Bridge, 20.2 miles

!5 of us met at Dunsop Bridge for the mini-bus transfer to Whalley,the start of our walk. After passing through the old,original, gates of the Abbey we made our way through fields to Old Langho and then Aspinall's Farm. Because of the floods in 2015 we could not use Dinckley Bridge to cross the River Ribble and had to make a detour via Ribchester Bridge which added over 3 miles to our route. Fortunately the weather gods were looking down on us today, it was bright and sunny and people were in good spirits. Picking our route up at Trough House we continued to Hurst Green where Stan, Shirley and Brian were waiting for us.

After John made a short talk telling us about the history of the Alms Houses we continued through Stonyhurst College grounds to the 17th century Greengore and our lunch stop about 1 mile further on. The ascent of Longridge Fell was our next objective and John informed us that this was Wainwright's first top. The views from the trig point were excellent all round with far reaching views across to Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent. Descending quite steeply now, we reached the road at Bradley Court and worked our way through fields to Doeford Bridge where we had an afteroon stop. Although the weather was really good the fields were still very sodden and muddy which made the going hard work.

We had about 5 miles left to walk and we carried on crossing more wet fields to arrive at the Inn at Whitewell, said to be a favourite of the Queen.A short but welcome stretch of tarmac brought us to Burholme Bridge and the final section back to our cars at Dunsop Bridge.

Thanks to Ian leading the walk and John for being backmarker and ensuring no one got left behind and also for his interesting information about places on the walk.

Doreen

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