Valley of Stone October 10th
Walk Leader – Neil Harwood
Number on walk – 15
Distance – 11 miles
Weather – Sunny with a good cooling breeze – perfect walking weather!
For once I was blessed with good weather and in what is probably one of the wettest parts of Lancashire – strange isn’t it. And fourteen walkers had managed to find the start point in deepest East Lancashire – Stuby Lee Park, a little gem just outside Bacup. So, a good start to the day.
The walk began with a steep but not overly long walk up to the eastern part of Lee Quarry, which overlooks the valley just above the town of Bacup. It is now disused but frequented by mainly mountain bikers but it also shows the remains of the quarrying industry that was prevalent in Rossendale. The quarry is crisscrossed by many tracks so beware but do look out for the two sculptures based upon fossils/dinosaurs, which are interesting additions to the landscape.
From the quarry we follow a good stony path up to the Pennine Bridleway/Rossendale Way with it’s remains of a railway/tramway that served some of the quarries up here. At the commemorative stone for the Rossendale Way, we came off the main track to head to the trig point on Top of Leach. At 474m it is the highest summit in Rossendale and also boasts a pentagonal stone commemorating the creation of the Borough of Rossendale, with the names of five of the main towns carved on each side.
Then we are off across the only really boggy part of the route to the nearest wind turbine, one of almost thirty which form the Scout Moor Wind Farm. On reaching it, it is back on to good tracks built to serve the turbines. We continue west and have lunch at the commemorative cross on the top of Whittle Hill. Rossendale likes to commemorate by the looks of it. Great views especially in this weather.
Then we begin our return to the start, via Waugh’s Well and the fringes of one of the most distinctive hills in Lancashire, Cowpe Lowe. The two Clarke’s could not resist a quick climb to the trig point on the top, whilst the rest of us headed down to the village of Cowpe in the bottom of the valley. Here we picked up the Irwell Sculpture Trail, with its “Stone Man”, think Bertie Bassett but made out of stone, and the remains of two railway tunnels, which the Trail walks through. After a couple of miles of initially following the old railway and then a pleasant walk along the valley side, we were back at just after Three with a quick walk back through the park to the cars.
If you pick your day, the views from this quiet part of Lancashire are well worth the extra travel time and there is a bit of interest along the way too.
More photos can be found within the Walks Database menu.