Walk Leader – Neil Harwood

Number on walk – 19

Distance – 10 miles

Weather – Beautiful, sunshine and blue skies all day. At 25 C possibly too hot!

The route begins with a walk through Ball Grove Nature Reserve along Colne Waters to the village of Laneshaw Bridge. We then join the Pendle and Lancashire Ways for the short stretch on to the lovely village of Wycoller. It was looking just perfect today and you could see why it is one of the most popular destinations in Lancashire with its pack horse bridge over the stream, beautiful yellow stone properties and the remains of its Hall with Bronte connections.

A steep but relatively short climb followed up to one of the four Panopticans (view points) created in the early 2000s across East Lancashire. This one is called the Atom, for obvious reasons, and indeed does have superb views across to Pendle Hill and Boulsworth Hill, with the latter being our next destinations. We then head back down into the valley and pick up the Pennine Bridleway (PBW), which after a short stretch turns SW.

At Lumb Laithe Farm, we leave the PBW for the climb up to the top of Lad Law, the highest point on Boulsworth Hill. It is a tough climb but it takes less than 30 minutes for most and well worth it. We have lunch at the Chair Stones just before the summit and take in the views west across the Ribble valley and on to Yorkshire, with its Three Peaks very much visible. From our lunch spot is a just a ten minute walk to the trig point, which at 517m is the seventh highest point in Lancashire.

The steep climb up is matched by the decent back down to the PBW. But once down the route is much simpler. A footpath through fields to the properties just above Gilford Clough and then we follow the lane down to the main road through Trawden. We then walk through Trawden itself. I could have skirted around the village but it is a lovely and well kept with the residents taking pride in its appearance. Just after passing the various Community properties (The Trawden Arms, the Library, Hall and Shop) we come off the main road on to the Wycoller road. It is a steep but short climb but we are rewarded by views across to Pendle again. Then it is across into Winewell and back down to the southern entrance to Ball Grove park, where we started. The ice cream van parked here was a welcome sight to many hot walkers!